i.';;v^ 


Eleazsr  Yiiillians-His  Foreroinners, 
Hinself 


Vi/iLLiAM  v;aed  wight 


PARKI^AW   C  HJB   PUBLIGAilONS  No.    7 


>*< 


V 


'Sk  ^^ 


w 


V 


GIFT  OF 

SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 

DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 

JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.SARTORI 

to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last 
date  stamped  below 

OCT  5     193Ci 

JUN  1  7  193? 


JUL  7     1937 

AUG  3  «. 
JON  18  I95(f 


►ARKMAN    CLUB    PUBLICATIONS 
No.  7 
MiLWALKKE,  Wis.,  June  9,  1896 


ELEAZER  WlLLIAMS-HlS  FORERUNNERS.  HIMSELF 


WILLIAM  WARD  WIGHT 


LO^  AI\GELES 


(Copyright,  1896,  by  William  Ward  Wight) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/eleazerwilliamshOOwigh 


Elkazer  Williams. 


y; 


ELEAZER  WILLIAMS— HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF. 


Until  within  a  recent  period  it  had  been  supposed  that  the  claims 
for  royal  descent  for  Eleazer  Williams  had  been  abandoned,  that  they 
were,  in  truth,  as 

"Dead  as  the  bulrushes  round  little  Mosrs 
On  the  old  banks  of  the  Nile." 

The  publication,  however,  by  a  reputable  London  house,  oi  The 
Story  of  Louis  XVII.  of  France}  and  the  appearance  of  many  news-, 
paper  screeds  relying  upon  that  volume  as  authority  have  re-directed 
attention  to  these  extravagant  pretensions  and  justify,  even  if  they  do 
not  demand,  this  present  writing. 

In  the  parish  church  of  St.  Nicholas  in  Great  Yarmouth,  Norfolk, 
Robert  eldest  son  of  Stephen  and  Margaret  (Cooke)  Wilyams  was 
baptised  on  December  ii,  1608.  Robert's  wife,  Elizabeth  Stalham, 
was  a  year  or  thereabouts  her  husband's  junior.  Robert  was  a  cord- 
wainer  and  plied  his  trade  in  his  native  shire  from  1623  until  he  de- 
serted his  ancestral  shores.  On  April  8,  1637,  he  with  his  wife  and 
their  four  children  Samuel,  John,  Elizabeth  and  Deborah,  was  exam- 
ined preliminary  to  emigration  to  New  England.  One  week  later  the 
family  sailed  in  the  Rose  of  Yarmouth  for  Boston.  Others  of  the 
same  sirname  from  the  same  neighborhood  followed  their  example. 
Forthwith  Robert  made  permanent  settlement  in  Roxbury  where  in 
1643  his  household,  now  augmented  to  six  children,  dwelt  upon  an 
estate  of  twenty-five  acres.  As  a  member  of  the  church  of  the  Rev. 
John  Eliot,  and  as  otherwise  qualified,  Robert  was  made  a  freeman 
^^ay   10,    1643.- 

He  was  a  personage  of  strong  fibre — a  rigid  Puritan.  Self-exiled 
for  conscience's  sake,  his  conscience  was  his  constant  mentor.  A  single 
incident  will  picture  his  character:  The  magistrates  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  sent   letters   to   the   several   towns   in    1672,    re([uesting   pecuniary 

1.  The  story  of  Ix)uis  XVII.  of  Franco  By  Elizahoth  E.  Evans.  Swan.  Snn- 
nosehein  &  Co.,   London,   1803. 

2.  Williams'  Robert  Williams,  luUifmln  Hotten's  Original  l.'sts,  20O,  292:  Let- 
ters of  Edward  H.  Williams,  jr.,  of  Bethlehem,  Pa.;  New  England  Historical  and 
•  Jonoalogical  Register,  II,  53:  III,  190:  XIV,  32."):  XXXV.  247:  XI.IV,  212;  XLVII. 
303.  This  last  set  will  hereinafter  be  abbreviated  to  Register.  All  authorities  cited 
will  I)e  enumerated  with  fuller  titles  in   .Xpjiendix  I. 


100515 


134  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

assistance  for  Harvard  College  and  inviting  criticisms  upon  the  con- 
duct of  the  institution.  Roxbury,  while  not  refusing  the  aid,  replied 
on  March  5,  1672,  complaining  of  an  evil  in  the  method  of  education — 
that  the  youth  were  brought  up  in  pride  ill  fitting  persons  intended 
lor  either  the  magistracy  or  the  ministry,  and  particularizing  their 
wearing  long  hair,  even  in  the  pulpit,  to  the  great  grief  and  fear  of 
many  godly  hearts.  Prominent  among  the  endorsers  of  this  indictment 
were  Robert  Williams  and  his  son  Samuel." 

Both  Robert  and  Elizabeth  Williams  died  in  Roxbury — the  former, 
September  i.  1693,  the  latter,  July  28,  i674.^They  were  the  progenitors 
of  many  distinguished  and  honored  Americans;  not  a  few  of  these, 
despite  the  capillary  criticism,  were  graduates  of  Harvard,  and  one, 
Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,  was  himself  the  founder  of  a  college.^ 

Samuel  Williams,  the  eldest  surviving  son  of  the  emigrant,  whose 
age  at  death  allows  1632  to  be  computed  as  his  probable  birth  year, 
was,  like  his  father,  a  cordwainer.  He  was  a  deacon,  and  from  Decem- 
ber 9,  1677,  ruling  elder,  in  the  Roxbury  church.  On  March  2,  1654, 
he  married  Theoda,  born  July  26,  1637,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Deacon 
William  and  Martha  (Holgrave)  Parke  of  Roxbury.  There  Samuel 
became  a  freeman  in  March,  1658,  there  he  died  September  28,  1698, 
and  there  his  widow  died  August  2,  lyi^S^ 

The  second  son  of  this  pair,  John,  over  whose  strange,  sad  history 
the  veil  of  human  sympathy  has  long  and  fondly  hung,  was  born  in 
Roxbury  December  10,  1664.'^  Educated  by  the  generosity  of  his 
grandfather  Parke  he  graduated  in  1683  at  Harvard  College,*^  doubt- 
less without  long  hair,  and  entered  the  ministry.  He  married  July  21. 
1687,  Eunice,  born  August  2,t  1664,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Eleazer  and 
Esther  Mather  of  Northampton,  Esther  being  the  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  John  Warham  of  Windsor.  Mr.  Mather,  who  was  born  in  Dor- 
chester May  13,  1637,  and  died  July  24,  1669,  w^as  a  brother  of  the  Rev. 
Increase  Mather  and  a  son  of  the  emigrant  the  Rev.  Richard  ^Mather 
(born  1596,  died  April  22,  1669).''  Upon  the  premature  death  of  the 
Rev.  Eleazer  Mather,  his  widow  Esther  (who  died  aged  ninety-two 
years  February  10,  1736)  married  Solomon  Stoddard  of  Northampton. 
She  thus  became  the  mother  of  Captain  John  Stoddard,  liorn  Fel)- 
ruary  17,  1682,  who  figures  In^icfly  later  in  tliis  narrative. 

:;.    lU'.nisifv  XXXV.  122.  12.1. 

4.     Uesjstci-  XX.\I\'.   09. 

."1.  Till'  Kt'v.  .Mr.  Vau  Itoiissol.icr.  in  lii<  IlisltiriCTl  IHsciUise.  54,  s:i.vs.  of  tlie 
fouiidri-  (iC  WiUi.-inis  College.  "Epln-aim  Wifliaias  \y:is  di  stvialtil  fnaa  thf  liesl  Pu- 
ritan   amo.str.v." 

(J.  SliuUloir.s  Deertield  II.  870:  Willianis'  MoW-n  Williaai.'^.  7;  Williams'  Wil- 
liams laiail.v,  Sli;  llugister  XXXIV,  (>!i.  Sljuldnu  priiil.><  .\ii-iist  2i;,  171s.  iii^trail  of 
.Uigiist    2.    1,718. 

7.    "SVilliaius"    UolftTt:    Williams.   S;    8heldoa".s    iKinliel.l.    II,   .■!70. 

,'5.     Williams'   Itoilfi'infd   I'aptive,   '.Hi:    Sil'liyS'.   Ilarvanl   siMdnates.   III.   240. 

0.     nci;isler   \l.    20. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  13o 

jMinute,  perhaps  tedious,  have  been  these  genealogical  details — yet, 
purposely  minute,  that  it  might  clearly  appear  how  gentle  the  flower 
of  saintly  New  England  growth  that  was  forcefully  transplanted  from 
Deerfield  into  the  wildernesses  of  Canada  to  bloom,  and  fade,  in  exile 
tliere. 

Deerfield,  or  Pocumtuck  meaning  High  Rock  Place,!''  was  on 
tlie  outskirts  of  the  Massachusetts  world  when  the  Rev.  John  Williams 
began  to  preach  there  in  June,  1686.  His  little  following  was  formally 
organized  into  a  church  and  he  ordained  its  pastor  October  17,  idSS.i'^ 
Here  he  faithfully  ministered  to  a  loyal  flock;  here  were  born  the 
eleven  children  of  his  marriage  with  Eunice  Mather.^-  Yet  in  much 
disquietude  was  his  life  passed,  ^vlore  than  once  in  the  circling  years 
tlie  dusky  prowler  surprised  the  sleeping  village;  more  than  once  the 
ruthless  hatchet  and  the  pitiless  rifle  wrought  their  ruin  among  its 
brave  inhabitants.  These  pathetic  events  pertain  not  to  my  theme; 
yet  of  one,   brief  mention  is  necessary. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  leap-year  day,  1704,  three  hundred  and 
forty  French  and  Indians^^  under  Major  Hertel  de  Rouville  attacked 
the  slumbering  inhabitants.  A  few  happily  escaped,  more  were  slain, 
still  more — chattel  property  for  their  greedy  captors — were  taken  pris- 
oners. ■  The  narrative  of  that  fatal  morning  of  February  29,  1704,  may 
be  read  in  many  histories — in  Penhallow,  Hoyt,  Dwight,  Parkman, 
Slieldon  1^ 

.Seven  children  of  the  Rev.  John  Williams  were  sleeping  peace- 
fully at  home  when  the  assault  began.  Two  of  these,  John  and  a  babe 
Jerusha  were  killed;  five, — Samuel,  Esther,  Stephen,  Eunice  and  War- 
ham  were  captivated.  These  last  with  their  parents  and  more  than  one 
hundred  other  prisoners  were  started  without  delay  upon  a  cold  and 
dreary  journey  across  Vermont  to  their  future  Canadian  abodes.  Upon 
the  second  day  of  their  wintrj^  tramp,  March  i,  Mrs.  Williams,  whose 
confinement  had  been  recent,!^  with  failing  strength  was  fording  Green 
River  five  miles  northwest  of  Greenfield.  No  friend  was  near  to 
assist  her,  for  the  captives  had  been  sprinkled  here  and  there  among 

10.  l{egi.ster  XXVIII,  280.  Cous\iU  as  to  Deeiliclil  New  Yurk  Colonial  Docn- 
incuts,   IV,    1083,   1099. 

11.  Sheldon's  Deerfield  I,  &7;  Williams'  Redeem*!  Captive,  9l>;  Kegisier,   VI,  74. 

12.  The  names  and  vital  statistics  of  these  children  form  Appendix  II.  A  ped- 
igree of  members  of  the  Williiims  family  mentioned  in  this  paper  forms  Appendix  III. 

13.  Two  hundred  French  and  the  remainder  Indians— partly  Eastern  Indians  'n 
native  costume,  partly  Mohawlis  or  MacQuas  (called  Maquass  in  X.  Y.  Col.  Docs.  IV, 
S03)  of  Caughnawaga,  probably  In  civilized  attire.     Sheldon's  Deerlield  I.  294. 

14.  Penbpllow's  Indian  wars,  24;  Hoyt's  Antiquarian  Researches,  186;  Dwight'a 
Travels  II,  G7:  Parkman's  Half-century  of  conflict,  I,  52:  Sheldon's  D.'ei-fleld,  I,  9.;. 
An  almost  contemporary  account  is  mentioned  Uegisttr  IX,  161.  A  wood-cut  of  .lean 
liaptisto  llertcl,  Scignetir  de  Rouville  can  lie  .-een  in  Wins  a-'s  Narrafve  au'l  crit'cal 
History  V,  100.     Tie  was  thirty-four  years  of  ago  at  the  tln:c  of  the  raid. 

15.  Her  child  .Terusha  was  born  .Tanuary  15,   1704.      Register  XLTV,  ^\~t. 


136  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

the  scattered  savages.  Her  Indian  attendant,  perceiving  that  she  would 
prove  unprofitable  for  sale  or  exchange,  tomahawked  her  as  she  was 
staggering  up  a  hill  just  after  crossing  the  stream.  Her  body,  found 
by  pursuing  whites,  was  reverently  returned  and  now  sleeps  in  God's 
acre  in  Deerfield,  and  a  monument  to  her  memory,  dedicated  August 
T2,  1886,  adorns  the  slope  where  she  fell.^'^' 

After  many  privations,  terrible  to  suffer,  thrilling  even  to  read, 
the  remainder  of  the  Williams  family,  although  in  separated  bands, 
reached  their  different  destinations.  All  of  them  except  one  eventu- 
ally returned  to  their  Deerfield  home.  The  father  was  exchanged, 
reached  Boston  by  water  November  21,  1706,  was  recalled  to  his  pas- 
torate in  Deerfield  and  died  there  June  12,  1729. i"  His  The  Redeemed 
Captive  Ketiirniiig  to  Zioii,  relates  in  quaint  language  the  story  of 
the  Indian  attack,  of  the  inclement  march,  of  the  life  in  Canada. ^^ 

One  of  the  Williams  family,  it  is  repeated,  did  not  return  to  the 
Deerfield  home.  This  one,  Eimice,  her  mother's  namesake,  the  de- 
scendant of  two  deacons  and  three  ministers  of  Puritan  New  England, 
the  far  away  child  of  many  paternal  supplications  and  bitter  tears,^"' 
frail  solitary  maiden  among  many  stalwart  Indian  braves,  claims  now 
our  sole  attention. 

Upon  the  divison  of  the  captives  Eunice  fell  to  a  chieftain  of  the 
settlement  which  the  French  called  Sault  St.  Louis  but  which  in 
sonorous  Iroquois  is  Caughnawaga.-'^  This  village,  the  namesake  of 
a  Mohawk  hamlet  west  from  Albany,  was  situated  four  leagues  above 
Montreal  on  the  south  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  As  early  a^  1636  the 
spot  was  considered  sightly  for  habitation  but  it  was  not  uniil  ib'oj 
that  the  first  Iroquois  went  there.  These  Iroquois,  largely  Mohawks 
with  a  few  Oneidas,  had  been  converted  by  Jesuit  missionaries  to 
Catholicism  and  to  the  French  interest  and  had  been  induced  from  time 
to  time  to  abandon  their  ancient  seats  in  New  York  for  homes  near 
IMontreal  where  they  would  be  under  the  wing  of  the  Church.  Thus 
dwelling  they  served  both  as  a  Ijulwark  against  the  English  and  as 
allies  of  the  French  in  war  and  in  marauding,  while  they  enriched 
themselves  by  lucrative  contraband  trade  between  the  lower  Hudson 
and  the  St.  Lawrence,  .^t  about  the  period  of  the  Deerfield  massacre 
two-thirds  of  the  New  York  Mohawks  had  been  persuaded  to  deport 
themselves  to  Caughnawaga,  so  that  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
praying  Indians  were  then  living  there.  In  1750  the  entire  population 
may  have  been  one  thousand  souls.     But  notwithstanding  the  religious 

16.  Sheldoirs    DcoHieia    II,    .377. 

17.  Sheldon's   Deerfield    I,    338;   Williams'   Williams  family,    60. 

18.  For  the  editions  of  this  little  hooli  see  Williams'  Redeemed  captive  (Noitli- 
nnipton,   1853)  page  iii;  Allibone's  Dictionary  III,  2741;    Sheldon's  Dee.fleld  II,   377. 

19.  Williams'   Redeemed   captive,    170,    171;    Will'ams'   Williams   family,   93. 

20.  Baker's    Eunice  Williams,    23. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  137 

influences  these  mission  Indians  still  continued  savages.  Although 
baptized  and  wearing  the  crucifix  they  yet  hung  their  wigwams  with 
scalps,  yet  wielded  their  tomahawks  against  feeble  women  and  innocent 
children. 

Remnants  of  the  Caughnawaga  mission  still  exist  and  travelers 
down  the  St.  Lawrence  peer  curiously  at  ungarbed  pappooses  sporting 
about  the  shore  and  at  tawny  braves  stalking  aimlessly  under  the 
arching  trees. -^ 

Eunice  Williams,  born  September  17,  1696,-^  was  between  seven 
and  eight  years  of  age  when  her  captivity  began.  Once  or  twice 
during  her  father's  stay  in  Canada  he  was  permitted  to  visit  and  con- 
sole his  daughter.  At  these  occasions  he  conjured  her  to  the  remem- 
brance of  her  prayers  and  of  her  catechism  and  warned  her  against  the 
desertion  of  her  faith.  Strenuous  yet  futile  efforts  were  made  to  secure 
her  return  with  him  to  New  England;  persistent  j'et  vain  endeavors 
for  her  release  were  afterwards  pressed  by  Colonel  John  Schuyler 
of  Albany  and  Deacon  John  Sheldon  of  Deerfield.  Gradually  her 
susceptible  child-nature  yielded  to  her  environment  and  to  the  gentle 
demeanor  of  her  captors.  She  became  an  Indian  in  dress  and  man- 
ners, a  Catholic  in  religion.  Her  conversion  was  consummated  by 
her  re-baptism  with  the  name  of  Margaret.  She  forgot  her  English 
and  her  catechism.  Her  lapse  from  the  ancestral  creed  was  to  her 
father  the  keenest  torture.-^ 

After  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713  brought  brief  peace  to  America 
alike  with  Europe,  the  father  of  Eunice  and  Colonel  John  Stoddard 
were  appointed  by  the  government  of  Massachusetts  Bay  to  negotiate 
the  redemption  of  New  Englanders  who  were  in  captivity  in  Canada. 
The  commissioners  left  Boston  November  5,  1713,  and  spent  more 
than  a  year  in  parleyings  which  were  characterized  by  earnestness  and 
skill  on  their  side  and  by  extreme  disingenuousness  on  the  part  of  the 
French  authorities.  The  commissioners  finally  sailed  homeward  with 
twenty-six  redeemed  captives.  Eunice  however  was  not  of  the  num- 
ber although  her  father  saw  her  and  had  discourse  with  her  "and  her 
Indian  relations."  How  tantalizing  such  an  interview  mvist  have  been 
to  the  now  impatient  and  angered  father  the  dry  tone   of  Stoddard's 

21.  Authorities  conceiuing  Caughnawaga :  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.  IV,  87,  7-47;  V,  742; 
VI,  582.  C20;  X,  301;  Relation  des  Jesuites,  1636.  42;  Lettres  ;difiantes  ot  curieusets 
1,  665;  Parlinian's  Half-centuiy  of  conflict  I,.  11,  12;  Paiknian's  The  old  regime  in 
Canada,  368;  Parkman's  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,  I,  61;  II,  144;  Letter,  May  15,  1896, 
from  the  Uev.  Arthur  E.  .Tones,  S.  J.,  of  St.  Mary's  College,  Montrtal;  Ba.xter's  New 
I'':aDce  in  New  England,  327;  Stone's  Sir  William' Johnson  I,  30.  Caughnawaga  means, 
Cook  the  kettle.     Documentary  history  of  New  York  III,   1108. 

22.  Sheldon's  Deerfield  II,  377;  Baker's  Eunice  Willi.iras,  20.  Williams"  Robert 
Williams,   15,   prints   September  16,   1696. 

23.  Baker's  Eunice  Williams.  23.  24:  Williams'  Redeemed  Caiitive.  :'S:  Paik- 
inati's    Ilair-ceiitury   nf  I'ontlici,    I..    77. 


138  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Journal-*  leaves  to  inference  and  imagination.  Mr.  Williams  never 
saw  his  daughter  again. 

The  date  of  her  marriage  is  unknown.  From  the  reference  in 
Stoddard's  Journal  to  her  "Indian  relations,"-'^  from  the  earnest  pro- 
test of  her  father  to  the  governor  of  Canada  against  marriages  be- 
tween Indians  and  minor  white  girls-*^  and  especially  from  a  memorial 
of  Colonel  John  Schuyler  to  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  it  appears 
that  Eunice  was  already  a  wife  when  the  commissioners  arrived  in 
Canada.  The  last  mentioned  document  shows-'^  that  the  marriage  oc- 
curred before  May  25,  1713 — before  she  was  seventeen  years  of  age. 
Her  husband  was  Amrusus,  a  name  roughly  civilized  into  Roger 
Toroso,  a  full-blood  Caughnawaga  Indian. ^s 

Of  her  life  among  her  adopted  people  there  are  but  few  glimpses. 
She  never  forgot  her  ancestral  home;  she  never  entirely  lost  the  New 
England  spirit.  Her  husband  assumed  the  sirname  Williams;  her 
only  son  was  called  from  her  father,  John."^  In  1740,  by  the  solicita- 
tion of  Colonel  John  Schuyler,30  who  hoped  to  accomplish  her  volun- 
tary return  to  civilization,  she  and  her  husband  visited  Albany.  Here 
by  prior  arrangement  were  present  her  brothers  Eleazer  and  Stephen 
and  the  Rev.  Joseph  Meacham,  her  brother-in-law.  Yielding  to  their 
entreaties  the  visit  was  extended  to  Long  Meadow,  where  her  brother 
Stephen  was  minister. ■''i  Finding  that  no  force  was  used  to  detain 
them  Eunice  and  her  husband  returned  in  1741  with  two  children, 
tarrying  at  Mansfield,^^  Boston  and  other  towns  and  remaining  several 
months.  Public  interest  in  these  visitors  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  the 
legislative  assembly  of  the  province  offered  the  family  a  tract  of  land 
m  Massachusetts  for  their  settlement — a  gift  which  Eunice  refused, 
fearing  its  acceptance  would  endanger  her  soul.^-''    In  1743  a  third  visit 

24.  Stotldaril'.s  Journal  is  printed  at  length  in  Register  V,  26.  Miss  Baker's 
Eunice  Williams  is  an  interesting  account  of  the  efforts  made  for  the  relpase  of 
Eunice. 

25.  Register  V,   33. 

26.  Baker's  Eunice  Williams,   33. 

27.  Baker's  Eunice  Williams,  28,  29. 

28.  Sheldon's  Deei-fleld  I,  347;  Letter,  April  G,  l.SOG,  from  Edward  H.  Wil- 
liams,   jr. 

29.  Parkman's  Half-century  of  conflict  I,  87;  Baker'.s  Eunice  Williams,  37. 

30.  Colonel  Schuyler  was  born  April  5,  1668,  and  was  grandfather  of  General 
Philip  Schuyler.     N.   Y.   Col.   Docs.   IV,  406;  Lamb's  New  York   I,    153. 

31.  But  she  would  not  lodge  in  the  house;  a  wigwam  was  (Constructed  in  the  or- 
chard and  she  slept  there.     Longmeadow  Centennial,  74. 

32.  An  extract  from;  a  sermon  preached  in  the  presence  of  Eunice  Williams,  at 
Mansfield,  Connecticut,  August  4,  1741,  by  her  remote  relative,  the  Rev.  Soicnon 
Williams  of  Lebanon,  Connecticut,  is  preserved  in  Williams'  Redfcmed  Captive,  170. 

33.  Statement  of  Jerusha  M.  Colton,  a  descendant  of  the  Rev.  John  Witliums, 
dated  May  26,   1836,  printed  in  Williams'  Redeemed  Captive,    171. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  139 

was  made.^^  On  all  these  occasions  her  New  England  cousins  unavail- 
ingly  endeavored  to  persuade  the  renunciation  at  least  of  her  Indian 
dress  and  customs. 

In  1758,  fifty-four  years  after  her  forcible  abduction  from  Deerfield 
she  visited  this  home  of  her  infancy.  By  her  civilized  kindred  she 
was  rehabilitated  in  English  garb  to  attend  the  Sunday  preaching  in 
her  father's  church.  Bur  neither  the  sacred  associations  of  the  occasion 
nor  the  memories  of  the  past,  nor  the  tearful  entreaties  of  her  friends, 
could  restrain  her  from  resuming  her  Indian  blanket  after  the  service 
had  closed. 35  Yet  she  never  became  a  savage  in  her  disposition.  Her 
influence  at  Caughnawaga  was  always  exercised  upon  the  side  of 
clemency  towards  captured  foes  and  against  barbarous  warfare.  The 
Inimane  inclinations  with  which  she  inspired  her  martial  grandson 
Thomas  Williams  amazed  .his  white  allies. ^^  A  letter  written  or  dic- 
tated by  her  to  her  brother  Stephen  in  December,  1781,  when  she  was 
more  than  eighty-five  years  of  age,  shows,  if  faithfully  rendered  into 
English,  a  resumption,  perhaps  a  continuance,  of  the  methods  of 
expression  and  drift  of  thought  which  must  have  been  familiar  to  her 
earliest  childhood i^'' 

My  beloved  brotlier,  once  in  cai^tivity  with  me,  and  I  am  still  so  as  you  may 
consider  it,  but  I  am'  free  in  the  Lord.  We  are  now  both  very  old  and  are  still  per- 
mitted by  the  goodness  of  God  to  live  in  the  land  of  the  living.  This  may  be  the  last 
time  you  may  hear  from  me.  Oh  pray  for  me  that  I  may  be  prepared  for  death  and 
I  trust  we  may  meet  in  Heaven  with  all  our  godly  relatives. 

The  writing  of  this  letter  is  the  latest  event  yet  discovered  in  the 
life  of  Eunice.     Five  years  after,  in  1786,  she  died  at  Caughnawaga.^'^ 

Of  her  marriage  with  the  Indian  Amrusus  were  born  one  son  and 
two  daughters,  whose  dates  of  birth  are  unknown.  The  son  John 
died  childless  at  Lake  George  in  1758;  the  daughter  Catherine  al- 
though married  was  likewise  without  offspring;  the  remaining  daugh- 
ter, called  sometimes  Mary  but  more  often  and  perhaps  more  correctly 
Sarah  is  therefore  the  only  child  of  Eunice  by  whom  her  blood  has 
been  perpetuated.""  That  this  statement  as  to  the  posterity  of  Eunice 
is  true  is  known  from  her  own  lips.     The  Rev.  James  Dean,  who  was 

34.  A  letter  (now  owned  liy  Edward  K.  Ayres  of  Chicago)  was  written  to  the 
Rev.  Stephen  Williams  of  Longmeadow,  brother  of  Eunice,  on  October  24,  1743,  by 
the  Rev.  John  Sergeant  of  Stoclvbridge.  congratulating  Mr.  Williams  "en  this  third 
visit  from'  your  poor  captive  sister,"  and  expressing  the  liope  that  "she  will  now  be 
persuaded  to  stay  with  you."  The  writer,  born  in  Xewarlv,  Xew  Jerse.v,  1710,  Yale 
1729,  became  a  missionary  to  the  Stoekbridge  Indians,  1734.  Register  X,  185,  232. 
Mr.  Sergeant  married  Abigail,  sister  of  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,  founder  of  Will- 
iamg   College.     Scribner's  Monthly,   February,;   1895,   247. 

.S5.    Williams'    Williams    family,    92-94. 

30.    Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,  21. 

.37.    Williams'    Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gon,    41. 

38.    Letter,    April   6,    1896,    from    Edward    H.    Williams,   jr. 

.39.    Williams'  Williams  family,  94;  Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-no-gcn,   17,  18. 


140  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

on  a  mission  to  the  Indians  of  Caughnawaga  and  St.  Francis  in  1773 
and  1774  and  became  well  acquamted  with  Eunice  and  her  surround- 
ings, thus  wrote  to  her  brother  Stephen  imder  date  of  November 
12,  i774:*o 

She  has  two  daughters  and  one  grunds m  wblcli  arc  all  tlie  disiendants  s  e  has. 
Both  htT  daughters  are  married  luit  oue  <if  tlioiii  has  nu  children.  Vuur  sister  lives 
comfortably  and  well  and  considering  her  advanced  age  enjuy'd  a  .go^d  state  oi"  heaUh 
when  I  left  the  country.  She  retains  still  an  affectionate  reniembianc  of  her  fr  ends  in 
N.  England  but  tells  me  that  she  never  expects  to  Sc'e  thi'm  again,  tlie  fatigues  of  so 
long  a  journey  would  be  too  much  for  her  to  undergo. 

This  letter  makes  no  reference  to  Amrusus — 1  assume  tliat  he 
was   dead. 

Much  obscurity  gathers  about  Sarah,  the  daughter  of  Eunice. 
That  she  was  living  in  1774  the  above  extract  renders  certain.  The 
name  of  her  husband,  the  father  of  her  children,  has  eluded  much 
vigilance,  and  in  the  search  for  him  the  shadow  of  the  Rev.  Eleazer 
Williams  of  Green  Bay  glances  for  the  first  time  across  this  paper's 
path.  In  1846  that  gentleman  had  personal  interviews  with  Stephen 
W.  Williams,  M.  D.,  then  compiling  the  genealogy  of  the  Williams 
family,  and  threw  this  light,  if  light  it  be,  upon  the  identitj'  of  Sarah's 
husband  :*i 

In  the  French  war  of  1755-60,  an  English  fleet  sent  out  against 
the  French  was  separated  in  a  tremendous  storm  near  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia.  Doctor  Williams,  an  English  physician,  was  on  one  of 
the  vessels  which  was  afterwards  taken  by  a  French  man-of-war.  As 
Doctor  Williams  was  a  man  of  science  and  a  distinguished  physician, 
he  was  treated  with  a  great  deal  of  attention  by  the  French  physicians 
in  Canada.  He  was  a  botanist  and  was  suffered  to  ramble  in  various 
parts  of  Canada  and  was  carried  by  the  Indians  in  their  canoes  to 
several  of  their  towns.  At  Caughnawaga  he  became  acquainted  with 
Sarah,  the  daughter  of  Eunice,  and  in  1758  married  her  on  condition 
that  he  would  not  move  from  Canada.  The  physician  proved  to  be  the 
son  of  the  bishop  of  Chester. 

The  genealogist  who  preserves  this  story  was  in  his  lifetime 
worthy  of  credit.  His  genealogy  is  not  a  model  of  execution,  is  un- 
indexed  and  in  many  ways  faulty,  but  the  author  was  of  high  character 


40.  This  letter  is  owned  by  Edward  E.  Ayres  of  Chicago,  and  was  transcribed 
for  me  (as  well  as  the  Sergeant  letter)  by  the  courtesy  of  Charles  A.  Smith  of  Chi- 
cago. Mr.  Dean  graduated  from  Dartmouth  in  1773.  He  passed  his  early  life  am  mg 
the  Indians  and  became  familiar  witli  their  language.  After  the  Revolutionary  war, 
he  was  stationed  at  Fort  Stanwix,  now  Rome,  New  Yorli,  as  interpreter.  He  died 
at  AVestmoreland,  New  York,  in  1823,  aged  75  years.  Dartmouth  Centenaial,  21: 
Hammond's  Madison   County,   110. 

41.  Williams'    Williams   family,    04. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  141 

and  of  unimpeached  integrity  and  has  been  praised  for  his  patient, 
painstaking  and  disinterested  service  to  his  family.*- 

It  is  supposed  therefore  that  he  printed  the  EngUsh  physician  story 
precisely  as  he  received  it  from  Eleazer.  But  I  may  be  asked,  Why 
tarry  upon  so  unimportant  a  detail  aS'  the  name  of  the  half-breed 
Sarah's  husband?  The  answer  is  at  hand:  The  consideration  of  this 
trifle  may  throw  light  upon  the  character  of  Eleazer  Williams,  and  the 
character  of  Eleazer  Williams  is  a  great  part  of  my  subject. ''^  If  in  this 
particular  Eleazer  may  be  disclosed  a  fabricator — not  to  use  a  Saxon 
dissyllable  of  similar  import — then  the  maxim  may  pertinently  be  in- 
voked, Falsits  in  uno,  falsus  in  omnibus.  If  Eleazer  Williams  has  de- 
ceived, deliberately  deceived,  the  world  as  to  the  name  and  identity 
of  his  grandfather  he  may  well  be  assumed  to  have  wrought  like  deceit 
as  to  the  name  and  identity  of  his  father. 

Diagnosis  of  the  English  physician  tale  leads  to  the  following, 
among  other,  observations: 

I.  The  story  itself  is  highly  improbable:  a  cultivated  English 
gentleman,  a  physician,  a  bishop's  son,  would  hardly  ally  himself  for 
life  to  a  half-breed  Caughnawaga  girl  and  stipulate  as  the  price  of  the 
alliance,  that  he  would  not  leave  Canada. 

II.  History  discloses  no  scattering  and  wrecking  of  an  English 
fleet  just  previous  to  1758,  and  the  subse:;uent  capture  of  a  single  vessel 
by  a  French  man-of-war.  The  authentic  event  most  similar  to  the  one 
described  by  Eleazer — the  destruction  caused  by  the  storm  ofif  Louis- 
bourg  in  1757^* — is  wanting  in  the  particulars  which  his  story  con- 
tains. 

III.  In  the  fall  of  1852  this  same  Eleazer  Williams  wrote  an  eulo- 
gistic biography  of  Thomas  Williams.  The  pen  being  now  in  his  .own 
hand  he  must  needs  make  wary  statements.  In  announcing  the  parent- 
age of  Thomas  (who  was  the  son  of  Sarah)  an  account  is  given  of 
Thomas'  mother,-*^  but  not  a  single  syllable  is  devoted  to  his  father — 
he  is  not  even  hinted  at.  Does  not  the  argitmentum  ab  silentio 
apply  with  strong  force  in  such  a  case?  Would  Eleazer  Williams, 
himself  then  an  Episcopalian,  neglect  so  grand  an  opportunity  to 
glorify  his  family  by  attaching  it  to  that  of  an  English  prelate,  if  truth 
permitted,  if  fear  of  discovery  did  not  prevent?  Why  did  he  not  in 
1852  endorse  by  repetition  the  oral  statements  of  1846? 

IV.  In   the  biography   of  Thomas   Williams   just   described,    it   is 

42.  Itegister  XLIX,  ISl;  IX,  370;  II  IIG.  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams  died  aged  sixty- 
flve  years,   July   6,    1855. 

43.  The  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.  D.,  in  his  iutroductory  note  to  Hanson's 
Hare  We  a  Boiirhoti  .\nionf;  Us.  in  Putnam's  Jlouthly  .Magazine  I,  1!)4,  lemarks 
that  Elcazer's  "character  for  veracity  becomes  an   all  important  question." 

44.  Parkman's   Montcalm  and  Wolfe  I,  472. 

45.  Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   17,   18. 


142  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

written  that  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  years  or  thereabouts  Thomas 
used  an  interpreter  in  conversation  with  his  New  England  kin^"  Cer- 
tainly no  need  for  such  service  could  have  existed  if  he  had  been  the 
son  of  an  English  father,  not  to  suppose  if  he  had  been  the  son  of  a 
distinguished  physician,  a  botanist,  a  man  of  science,  of  England. 

V.  Eleazer  Williams,  during  his  lifetime,  made  so  many  variations 
upon  the  identity  of  this  husband  of  Sarah  and  father  of  Thomas  as  to 
demonstrate  his  versatility  at  the  expense  of  his  veracity.  To  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Hanson,  author  of  The  Lost  Prince,  it  was  stated,  or  more  accu- 
rately, by  him  it  was  recorded,'*''^  simply  that  the  young  Indian  girl 
married  an  English  physician  named  Williams.  When  the  1853  edition 
of  The  Redeemed  Captive  appeared,  the  diocese  of  the  bishop,  whose  son 
had  exiled  himself  for  a  Caughnawaga  bride,  was  changed  and  had 
become  Chichester.'is  When,  about  1845,  Eleazer  filed  his  pedigree 
with  the  New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Society  he  recorded  the 
husband  of  Sarah  as  Ezekiel  Williams  an  English  physician.'*^  To 
the  prince  de  Joinville  in  1841  Eleazer  related  that  on  his  father's  side 
he,  Eleazer,  was  of  French  origin  ;5o  while  the  present  genealogist  of 
the  Williams  family  has  several  lines  of  Eleazer's  descent  all  purport- 
ing to  emanate  from  him  and  all  dififerent.^i 

VI.  There  never  was  a  bishop  of  Chester  of  the  name  of  Wil- 
liams. The  nearest  designation  to  Williams  in  the  Chesterian  hier- 
archy was  that  of  John  Wilkins,  brother-in-law  of  Oliver  Cromwell, 
who  was  consecrated  in  1668,  ninety  years  before  the  alleged  marriage 
of  Sarah,  and  who  died  November  19,  1672.^2  There  was  a  bishop 
of  Chichester  named  John  Williams,  but  he  was  born  in  162,4,^^  and 
it  has  not  yet  been  discovered  even  in  the  Registry  of  the  diocese  that 
he  ever  married.'^* 

VII.  There  has  not  j^et  been  traced  in  Canada  in  the  last  century 
any  English  physician  named  Ezekiel  Williams  or  any  such  physi- 
cian of  that  sirname  who  even  remotely  would  answer  Eleazer's  de- 

46.  Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,  39.  When  Thomas  Williams  was  at  liong- 
meadow  church  in  1800  he  "could  not  understand  a  word  of  the  services."  Colton's 
Tour  I,   160. 

47.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   182. 

48.  Williams'   Redeemed  Captive,   176. 

49.  Huntoon's  Eleazer  Williams,  259.  Eleazer  became  a  corresponding  member 
of  the  New  England  Historic-Gfenealogical  Society  August  6,  1845.  See  Rolls  of  Mem- 
bers,  1844-1890,   page  90. 

50.  Hanson's  The   Lost  Prince.    404. 

51.  Letter,   April  6,   1S9G,    from   Edward   H.   Williams,  jr. 

52.  Neal's   Puritans  II,   275:    Noble's  Protectoral  House  of  Cromwell   II,   ."12. 

53.  AUibone's  Dictionary  III,   2741. 

54.  Letter,  March  21,  1896,  from  F.  S.  M.  Bennett,  private  secretary  to  the 
present  bishop  of  Chester;  letter  May  18,  1898,  from  Sir  Robert  Raper,  private  sec- 
retary and  registrar  to  the  bishopi  of  Chichester.  I  am  Indebted  to  these  right  rev- 
erend gentleji#Bn  and  to  their  courteous  assistants  for  prompt  and  full  replies  tn  niy 
questions. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  143 

scription  of  Sarah's  husband.  Before  venturing  this  assertion  care- 
ful search  has  been  made  of  Dr.  Munk's  Roll  of  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  from  1518  to  1800,^^  Dr.  Canniff's  The  Medical  Profession 
in  Upper  Canada,  1783  to  1850^^  and  Tanguay's  Dictionnaire  genealog- 
it/ue.''' 

I  conclude  therefore  that  Eleazer  Williams  unconscionably  mis- 
stated the  facts  as  to  the  identity  of  his  paternal  grandfather;  that  he 
did  not  know,  or  did  not  care  to  disclose,  the  true  name  and  national- 
ity of  that  ancestor  and  that  his  persistent  reference  to  a  personage 
called  Williams  as  that  ancestor  was  due  to  his  desire  to  trace  his  own 
possession  of  that  sirname  to  the  usual  method  of  acquiring  such  des- 
ignations and  not  to  that  of  adoption.  The  fact  is  that  the  husband  of 
Sarah  was  an  Indian  of  unknown,  mayhap  of  unpossessed,-  name,  and 
that,  just  as  Amrusus  called  himself  Williams  from  reverence  for  his 
vvife's  New  England  ancestry,  so  the  aboriginal  husband  of  Sarah 
assumed  the  same  sirname  for  a  similar  reason. "S 

Of  her  marriage  was  a  son  Thomas,  or  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen  who 
was  apparently  her  only  child. ^^  Eleazer  in  his  life  of  Thomas,  in- 
forms us  that  Sarah  died  when  her  son  Thomas  was  fifteen  months  old, 
that  is  to  say,  about  1760. '^o  But  if  the  Rev.  James  Dean,  in  1774,  can 
be  believed  to  have  accurately  employed  the  present  tense  in  his  be- 
fore quoted  letter  to  the  Rev.  Stephen  Williams,  Sarah  was  living 
not  fewer  than  fourteen  years  after  her  grandson  writes  she  was  dead. 
From  the  usual  longevity  of  the  Williams  family  and  from  Eleazer's 
notorious  innocence  of  acctiracy  I  fear  that  Mr.  Dean  was  a  truer 
grammarian  than  Eleazer  was  a  reliable  historian. 

Thomas — for  his  hyphenated  Iroquois  name  is  too  cumbersome — 
was  born  about  1758  or  1759.^^  He  was  a  sprightly  active  lad,  and  was 
skilled  in  the  chase.  He  was  of  the  age  of  eighteen  years  when  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  began.  With  the  remainder  of  his  band  he  espoused 
the  cause  of  England  and  was  made  a  war  chief  in  1777.  He  was  pres- 
ent more  or  less  actively  at  Bennington  and  at  Saratoga  but  he  ap- 


55.  In  two  octavos,   Longman's  1861. 

56.  Containing  short  biographical  memoirs  of  several  huudrtd  persons.  Altliouiili 
1783  was  later  than  the  time  of  Sarah's  marriage,  her  claimed  English  medical  hus- 
band should  have  been  in  this  volume  had  ho  spent  hs  life  in  Canada  tind  livel  to 
a  reasonable  age. 

57.  Seven  large  volumes. 

58.  Letter,  April  G,  1896,  from  Edwaid  H.  W'illiams,  ji-..  of  Betii;ehoni,  1  enn- 
sylvaniff,  who  for  twenty-oight  years  has  sought  from  original  sources,  the  liistory  of 
the  descendants  of  Robert  Williams.  That  the  Indian  posterity  of  Eunice  Williams 
assumed  her  sirname  appears  from  the  preface  to  Fessenden's  Sermfin.  That  it  is 
not  uncommon  fox'  mixed-blood  Indians  to  take  the  ramp  of  their  white  an  (Stms 
appears  from  Colton's  Tour  I,  158;  Davidson's  In  Unnamed  Wiscr.nsin.  05. 

59.  Williams'    Williams   family.   94;    Dean's   Litter,  .s(;;ir,v. 

60.  Williams'   Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,    17. 

61.  Boston  Daily   Journal.    October  17,   1S4S. 


Ui  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

pears  not  to  have  been  entirely  harmonious  with  the  British  ofticers, 
perhaps  because  he  lacked  the  usual  Indian  ferocity.  His  biography 
ascribes  his  undoubted  clemency,  his  magnanimity  in  battle  and  to 
captured  foes,  to  the  influence  of  his  grandmother  Eunice.  While  none 
disputed  his  bravery,  his  generosity  excited  the  surprise  of  his  fellow 
warriors.  Sir  John  Johnson  heartily  disliked  him — a  hostile  feeling 
which  Thomas  warmly  reciprocated  and  which  had  its  influence  in 
changing  his  allegiance  when  the  war  of  1812  was  brewing."- 

After  the  peace  of  1783  Thomas  resumed  the  chase,  carrying  his 
vocation  as  far  as  Lake  George — his  frequent  and  favorite  hvmting- 
ground63 — and  often  visiting  Albany  to  barter  his  furs.  At  the  Dutch 
capital  he  became  the  friend  of  General  Philip  Schuyler  who  had  been 
a  pupil  in  the  household  of  the  Rev.  Stephen  Williams  of  Longmead- 
ow*'*  and  who  was  the  grandson  of  Colonel  John  Schuyler,  the  strenu- 
ous advocate  for  the  release  of  Eunice  Williams.  With  letters  from 
General  Schuyler  he  made  his  first  visit,  in  1783,  to  his  New  England 
kin  and  formed  those  friendships  which  led  to  important  consequences 
in  the  lives  of  two  of  his  sons.  At  Stockbridge  the  interpreter  between 
Thomas  and  his  English-speaking  cousins  was  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Kirkland,  missionary  to  the  Oneida  Indians,''^  the  tribe  to  which 
afterwards  the  son  of  Thomas  was  to  minister  in  the  same  capacity.  At 
Longmeadow  he  found  to  his  sorrow  that  his  great-uncle  Stephen,  to 
whom  Eunice  had  recently  written  so  pathetically,  was  dead.""  Thomas 
never  forgot  his  New  England  connections.  His  friendship  with  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Williams,  LL.  D.,  of  Rutland,  Vermont,  was  very  intimate 
and  was  full  of  satisfaction  and  helpfulness  to  both.*'" 

When  the  great  misunderstanding  arose  between  England  and  the 
United  States  in  1808  President  Jefiferson  addressed  a  letter  to  the  bor- 
der Indians.  In  this  he  stated  that  the  impending  war  was  no  quarrel 
of  theirs  and  urged  them  to  remain  quiet  and  neutral.  Moreover  he 
promised  them  that  should  the  British  claim  their  services  and  they 
chose  instead  to  break  up  their  settlements  and  cross  into  the  United 
States,  he  would  find  other  settlements  for  them  and  make  them  chil- 
dren of  the  young  Republic. •'s  In  addition,  when  the  war  actually 
broke  out,  the  President  sent  a  personal  invitation  to  Thomas  Will- 

62.  Williams'  Te-bo-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   21,  36. 

63.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   1S3,  184;  Williams'  Te-ho-ia-gwa-ne-geu,  20. 

64.  Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   37. 

65.  Williams'  Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,  39.  For  the  auoestiy  ol'  Mr.  Kirlda'ul  see 
Register  XIV,   241;   XLVIII,   66. 

6G.  The  Rev.  Stephen  Williams  died  June  10,  1782,  after  a  pastorate  ov3r 
Ixjngmeadow  church  of  sixty-six  years.  Register  XXXVII,  4f»:  Hullaiurs  Western 
Massachusetts   II,  78;    Williams'   Williams  family,   71,   85. 

67.  Williams'    Williams   family,   42. 

68.  The  original  Jefferson  letter  belonged  to  the  widow  of  Thouuis  Williams. 
It  is  copied  in  full  in  Exhibit  A,  Report  of  HnU'^e  Committee  on  Military  Affais 
No.   83,   34th  Congess.  Third   Session,   January    10.   1857. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  145 

iams,  as  one  of  the  infiuential  Iroquois  chiefs,  to  join  the  American 
standard,  asking  him  to  repress  any  belHgerent  movements  which 
might  be  contemplated  by  his  own  or  other  tribes  against  the  United 
States  and  promising  him  full  indemnity  for  any  losses  which  his  loy- 
alty to  the  Republic  might  occasion,  besides  support  for  his  family  and 
himself  during  the  war.*"*  Confiding  in  these  assurances  Thomas 
Williams  removed  to  the  United  States  in  1813,  and  was  soon  followed 
by  his  son  John  and  by  other  Caughnawagans.""  This  was  not  a 
great  hegira  in  point  of  distance,  but  by  it  he  abandoned  his  Canadian 
home,  sacrificed  an  estate  of  not  less  than  seven  thousand  dollars  and 
lost  an  annuity  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  which  he  had  enjoyed 
from  the  British  government.  This  removal,  the  active  aid  ot 
Thomas  and  his  band  against  England  and  the  inertness  or  neutrality 
of  the  other  Indians  whom  Thomas  influenced,  so  aroused  against 
him  the  resentment  of  his  former  allies  that  he  was  prohibited  from  re- 
turning to  Caughnawaga  to  live — he  went  there  in  the  evening  of  his 
daj's  to  die. 

It  is  not  to  the  credit  of  the  United  States  government  that 
despite  much  personal  effort  by  Thomas  and  much  solicitation  upon 
the  part  of  his  friends,  his  distinguished  services  in  this  war  were 
not  requited,  and  his  large  pecuniary  sacrifices  were  not  made  good, 
during  his  lifetime.  That  his  efiforts  were  efftcient  and  valuable  and 
were  continued  without  intermission  until  the  close  of  the  struggle 
was  admitted  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  more  than  forty  years 
afterward,  yet  both  Thomas  and  his  widow  emphasized  by  their  impov- 
erished and  unrecompensed  old  age  the  ingratitude  of  republics.  In 
1858  too  tardy  justice  was  done  the  estate  and  memory  of  Thomas 
Williams. "1 

Respected  and  beloved  by  his  people,  in  his  native  village  of 
Caughnawaga,  he  died — but  when?  Eleazer  Williams  in  his  biography 
of  his  father  states'-  that  the  latter  died  August  16,  1849.  But  here 
appears  the  Boston  Daily  Journal  of  October  17,  1848,  which  in- 
forms the  world  that  Thomas,  in  his  ninetieth  year,  died  in  Caugl^- 
nawaga  September  16,  1848.  To  prove  that  this  item  was  not  prem- 
ature, I  find  it  repeated  in  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genea- 
logical Register  for  January  1849"'' — abundant  opportunity  for  correct- 
ing the  earlier  publication  if  incorrect.     I  deem  it  established  therefore 


69.  Memorial  of  his   widow.    M.iiy   Aim   William-;,    dati  (1  f^oplemb  T.    184':    affidii 
Tit  of  Eleazpr  Williams,   .Tanu.ary   18,   1850,    both  attached   fo  said   Report   No.    S3. 

70.  Williams'   Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,    72,    73,    76. 

71.  Report,  April  17,  18.58,  of  House  Committee  on  .Military  Affairs,  No.  303, 
35th  Congress,  First  Session,  is  authority  for  the  facts  as  to  Thonr:s'  change  of 
service  and  as  to  the  tardy  justioe  of  the  govornraent  he  was  invited  h>  serve. 

72.  Williams'    To-ho-va-gwa-ne-gen,   90. 

73.  Register  III,    103. 


146  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

that  Eleazer  Williams  blundered  eleven  months  in  penning  the  time 
of  his  father's  death,  and  this  when  writing  within  three  years  after 
the  event  and  when  the  proper  date  was  well  known  and  had  been 
widely  distributed  in  the  public  prints.  Can  Eleazer's  sole  authority 
be  accepted  upon  any  point  as  to  which  general  noninformation  and 
difference  of  opinion  exist?  Are  we  not  justified  in  adopting  the 
animadversion  of  Lord  Macaulay  upon  Mr.  Croker:'^-^  "It  is  not  likely 
that  a  person  who  is  ignorant  of  what  almost  everybody  knows  can 
know  that  of  which  almost  everybody  is  ignorant"? 

The  wife  of  Thomas  Williams,  named  Mary  Ann  Rice,  or  Konante- 
v.anteta,  was  like  himself  of  mixed  blood. "^  She  was  lineally  descended 
from  a  youth  named  Rice  stolen  by  the  Indians  from  Marlboro'  in 
the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay  early  in  the  eighteenth  century.''" 
Her  father  was  named  Haronhumanen.  She  married  Thomas  Williams 
January  7,  1779.''''  She  was  a  devout  Catholic.  In  1852  when  she 
must  have  been  more  than  ninety  years  of  age  she  was  residing  on 
the  St.  Regis  reservation  about  eight  miles  from  the  village  of  St. 
Regis.  But  little  bowed  with  age  she  walked  regularly  to  church  with 
no  other  aid  than  a  staff,  and  was  able  to  attend  to  domestic  duties.  She 
was  apparently  a  full-blooded  Indian  and  spoke  no  other  language 
than  Mohawk.'''^  She  died  May  i,  1856.'^^  As  this  event  happened 
more  than  seventy-seven  years  after  her  marriage  she  could  not  have 
been  far  from  a  centenarian. 

Thomas  and  Mar}^  Ann  Williams  had  not  fewer  than  eleven 
children.  There  is  printed  in  Hanson's  TJic  Lost  Prince^^  a  tran- 
scription from  the  Register  of  the  Mission  at  Caughnawaga  authen- 
ticated by  Father  Francis  Marcoux,  priest  at  the  Mission  in  1853 
when  the  transcription  was  made,  showing  the  names  and  dates  of 
birth  of  the  eleven  children  of  Thomas  and  Mary  Ann  there  regis- 
tered.    This  list  is  as  follows: 


74.  See  Macaulay's  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays  II,  20  (New  York  1878). 

75.  Slie  was  "tliree-fourtlis  Indian":  Smith's  Elenzcr  Williams,  Wis.  Hist. 
CoU.   VI,  309. 

76.  Letter  April  6,  1896,  from  Edward  H.  Williams,  jr.  There  were  two  Rice 
hoys,  Silas  and  Timothy,  captured  at  Marlboro',  Massachusetts,  August  8,  1704,  and 
several  Tarbell  children  seized  at  Groton,  same  colony,  June  20,  1707.  Ward's  Rice 
family,  37;  Green's  Groton,  109.  To-day  Rices  are  sub-chiefs  at  Caughnawaga  and 
Tarbells  at  St.  Regis.  Almost  half  of  the  village  of  St.  Francis  near  Caughnawaga 
was  in  1774  composed  of  Gills  descended  from  another  New  England  captive.  See 
Dean  letter  described  at  note  40. 

77.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  468. 

78.  Williams'   Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   89,    Hough's   note. 

79.  Report  ixo.  303,  House  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  35lh  Co!g  es  .  First 
Session,   April   17,   1858. 

80.  Page  468. 

81.  This  name  occurs  lower  in  the  List  in  the  feminine  form.  These  l\v<i  weie 
doubtless  so  named  in  compliment  to  .Tohn  Baptist  Toietaliheronti.',  a  f rien  1  and 
fellow-hunter  of   their   father.      Williams;'   Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   38. 


HIS  FOJiEEUNNERS,  HIMSELF. 


117 


Jean  Baptiste,'*^ 

ne     le 

7  Sept.   1780. 

Catherine, 

nee  le 

4  Sept.   1 78 1. 

Thomas, 

ne     le 

28  Avr.   1786. 

Louise, 

nee  le 

18  Mai  1 791. 

Jeanne  Baptisle, 

21  Avr.  1793. 

Pierre, 

lie     le 

25  Aout  1795. 

Pierre, 

4  Sept.  1796. 

Anne, 

nee  le 

30  Janv.  1799. 

Dorothee, 

2  Aout  i8oi. 

Charles, 

ne 

8  Sept.  1804. 

Jervais, 

" 

22  Juil.   1807. 

Three  facts  appear  on  the  face  of  this  List: 

A.  The  Christian  name  Eleazer  is  not  to  be  found: 

B.  There  is  a  gap  of  more  than  four  years  and  seven  months 
between  the  birth  of  Catherine  and  that  of  Thomas: 

C.  There  is  a  gap  of  more  than  five  years  between  the  birth  of 
Thomas  and  that  of  Louise. 

Assuming  for  a  moment  the  truth  of  the  oft-repeated  statement 
of  Mary  Ann  Williams,  that  Eleazer  Williams,  the  subject  of  this 
paper,  was  her  child,  three  questions  present  themselves.  L  Where 
was  he  born?  IL  Why  was  not  his  birth  recorded  in  the  Mission 
Register?     IIL     When  was  he  born? 

On  the  threshold  of  a  reply  an  incident  new  to  the  aggressive 
discussion  of  the  Eleazer  Williams  problem  must  be  related.  Edward 
ij'ijiginson  Williams,  a  descendant  of  the  emigrant  Robert  Williams, 
was  born  in  Woodstock,  Vermont,  June  i,  1824,  and  graduated  from 
Vermont  Medical  College  in  1846.  For  more  than  forty  years  he  has 
been  engaged  in  railroading  and  in  businesses  connected  therewith.  In 
1858  he  was  assistant  superintendent  of  the  Milwaukee  and  Mississippi 
railroad  with  residence  in  Janesville;  in  1864  he  became  superintendent 
of  the  Galena  Division  of  the  Chicago  and  Northwestern  Railway:  from 
1865  until  1870  he  was  general  manager  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
and  from  1870  until  the  present  time  he  has  been  and  is  one  of  the 
firm  of  Burnham,  Williams  and  Company  of  the  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works,  Philadelphia,  in  1851  he  was  adopted  by  the  Caughnawaga 
Indians  intij  their  tribe  under  the  name  of  Raristescres.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Swedish  Royal  Society  and  a  knight  of  the  Order  oi 
the   North   Star   of  Sv.-eden. 

In  August  and  later  months  of  1851  this  Doctor  Williams  was 
employed  in  the  construction  of  a  line  of  railway  at  Caughnawaga 
through  the  reservation.  As  an  ado])ted  member  of  the  tribe  he  was 
living  with  the  leading  man  and  [.rinciiial  chief.  O-ron-hi-a-tek-ha. 
or   George   de   Lorimier.   an   Indian    oi   nnich    astuteness  and   capacity. 


148  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

One  Sunday  during  the  fall  of  1851  several  gentlemen,  among  them 
a  Mr.  Parkman*-  who  was  then  examining  the  records  of  the  Cath- 
olic parish  churches  in  Canada,  visited  Caughnawaga  for  the  purpose 
of  investigating  a  story  just  then  becoming  widely  current^"  that 
Eleazer  Williams  formerly  of  that  village  was  not  the  son  of  Mary  Ann 
Williams  or  Konantewanteta.  The  story  was  new  to  Caughnawaga 
and  de  Lorimier  learning  his  visitors'  errand  decided  upon  a  careful 
examination.  Inviting  Dr.  Williams  to  be  present  with  the  other 
gentlemen  he  sent  for  Konantewanteta  and  for  two  other  of  her 
aged  Indian  friends — a  man  and  a  woman.  Not  knowing  why  they 
were  summoned,  they  were  kept  apart  from  each  other  and  separately 
questioned  as  to  the  birth  of  Eleazer  Williams.  There  was  no  chance 
for  collusion.  Konantewanteta  stated  without  reservation  that  Eleazer 
was  her  child  and  that  he  was  born  on  the  shores  of  Lake  George 
when  her  husband's  band  was  hunting  and  fishing  there.  That  Lake 
George  was  a  favorite  camping  ground  of  Thomas  Williams  has  al- 
ready been  shown.  The  ancient  friends  when  called  upon  confirmed  in 
detail  what  Konantewanteta  had  said,  stating  that  they  were  with  the 
band  at  the  time  the  child  was  born  and  the  squaw  adding  that  she 
herself  was  present  at  the  event.  The  interpreter  of  the  testimony 
was  Alexander  McNab,  a  Scotchman*^  who  was  a  much  trusted  magis- 
trate in  the  tribe  and  had  an  Indian  wife.  The  examination  being 
completed  Eleazer  Williams'  story  of  his  royal  origin  was  then  trans- 
lated to  the  assembled  Indians.  One  and  all  vehemently  denounced 
the  tale  as  a  lie,  while  the  little  old  mother  bursting  into  tears  ex- 
claimed that  she  knew  Eleazer  had  been  a  bad  man  but  she  did  not 
know  before  that  he  was  bad  enough  to  deny  his  own  mother.  Ty-ia- 
ya-ki.  or  Grand  Eaptiste,  the  pilot  of  the  Lachine  Rapids,  declared 
to  the  company  that  for  a  long  period  before  Eleazer  was  ten  years  of 
age  he  was  the  playmate  and  companion  of  the  witness  at  Caughna- 
waga. Dr.  Williams  writes,  "The  mother  o*'  Eleazer  was  very  old — 
possibly  one  hundred.  She  was  what  might  be  called  feeble-minded 
as  old  people  are,  but  not  in  any  way  lacking  in  understanding.  Her 
testimony  came  out  in  pieces  as  in  the  case  of  old  people  and  from 
the  appearance  of  the  Indians  and  of  herself  during  and  after  the  read- 

82.  Dr.  William.s;  lias  always  snppnsfd  that  this  was  Francis  Parkmnn.  the  h's- 
torian.  If  so,  his  opinion  of  Elcaz^or  Williams,  in  Ilalf-Cpntury  of  Conflict.  I,  .S8,  is 
doubtless   based  on   the   testimony   given   at   this   investigation. 

S.3.  Although  the  story  of  Eleazer  Williams,  as  the  dauphin  had  bpcn  some- 
what known  before  and  indeed  had  bren  published  in  the  United  States  Magazine  and 
Democratic  Uoview  of  July,  1S40,  no  especial  attention  had  been  given  to  the  sub- 
ject until  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer  published  articles  about  it  in  the  fall 
of   1851. 

84.  Tlie  present  priest  at  ranshn.-iw.-igM,  the  R'V.  ,7.  (;}.  L.  Forbes  is  .also  a 
Scotcliman. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  149 

ing  of  the  statement  it  was  evident  that  they  then  heard  it  tor  the  first 
time."*^ 

To  this  narrative  of  a  reUable  and  veracious  auditor  and  eye-witness 
like  Dr.  WilHams  I  attach  great  importance.  The  statement  of  the 
mother  corroborated  by  her  aged  companions  bears  the  marks  of 
exact  truth.  Made  with  much  formahty,  made  in  the  presence  of  the 
tribal  chief,  made  in  the  first  blush  of  the  false  tale,  made  before 
cupidity  had  been  aroused  and  base  motives  invoked,  made  before 
the  centenarian  had  been  physically  harassed  and  mentally  tormented 
by  opponents  and  adherents  of  Eleazer's  claims,  made  eighteen  months 
and  two  years  before  affidavits  apparently  inconsistent  had  been  tor- 
tured from  her  agitated  and  hence  vacillating  memory,  this  solemn 
declaration  of  the  aged  squaw  and  her  dusky  friends  should  be  accept- 
ed as  very  truth,  should  forever  relegate  Eleazer  Williams  to  the 
too  numerous  company  of  tmconscionable  pretenders.*'^ 

Returning  now   to   the   three   questions: 

I.  Where  was  Eleazer  Williams  born?  Upon  the  testimony  of 
his  mother — at  Lake  George.  Eleazer  himself  relates  that  Thomas 
Williams  was  much  at  Lake  George  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.s" 

IL  Why  is  not  Eleazer's  birth  recorded  in  the  ^lission  Register? 
liecause  it  did  not  take  place  at  the  Mission.  Absentee  births  were 
not  required  to  be  listed  at  the  home  Mission.  One  object  of  regis- 
tering births  was  to  keep  track  of  the  parents,  but  as  Indians  desiring 
to  be  away  must  first  have  obtained  permission  from  the  Indian  agent, 
of  which  a  record  was  kept,  absentees  were  traceable  without  regis- 
tration of  their  oiifspring.  So  Father  Marcoux  stated  to  Dr.  Williams 
and  so  investigation  of  the  parish  books  at  Caughnawaga  disclosed. ^^ 
Moreover,  the  affidavit  of  the  old  mother  Konantewanteta,  of  July  8, 
1853,  the  original  of  which  Eleazer  Williams  prepared, st*  the  transla- 
tion of  which  ]\Ir.  Hanson  corrected^^  j^d  the  original  and  translation 
of  which  the  latter  prints  with  much  flourish,  proves  that  one  at 
least  of  the  children  whom  Eleazer  allows  Konantewanteta  to  count 
as  her  unchallenged  very  own,  is  not  registered  at  the  ^fission.     Nam- 

85.  Letter  May   11,    180C,    of  Edward   H.   Williams,   jr. 

86.  The  above  account  of  the  examination  of  tlie  aged  Indians  is  from  Dr. 
Williams'  own  lips,  written  l)y  his  son  Edward  II.  Williams,  jr.,  and  contair.ed  in 
letters  to  mo  dated  April  0,  1.^,  15,  20  and  Jlay  2,  1896.  X  reference  to  tho  same 
i-xaminatiun  will  he  found  in  The  Nation,  June  14,  1894,  440.  from  the  pen  .>f  the 
younger   Mr.   Williams. 

87.  Williams'  Te-lio-ra-gwa-nc-geu,   37. 

88.  Letters,  April  6,  15,  1896,  from  Edward  H.  Williams.  .Jr.;  Williams'  Re- 
deemed Captive,   179;   Draper's  Additional  Notes,  Wis.   Hist.   Coll.  VIII.  ,556. 

89.  Ellis'  Eleazer  Williams,  W'is.  Hist.  Coll.  VIII,  350;  Robertson's  The  Last  ot 
the  Bourlioii   Story,    Putnam's,   II  n.   s.,   92. 

90.  Hanson'.s   The  Lost   Prince,   434. 


^50  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

ing  her  progeny  in  somewhat  of  a  chronological  order,  Konantewanteta 
-in  that  affidavit"^  is  made  to  mention  third  in  order  a  child  Ignatius — 
a  name  which  by  no  philological  strategy  can  be  manoeuvred  into 
any  other  name  on  the  Mission  List,  a  name  which  Eleazer  evidently 
forgot  to  observe  was  not  on  the  Mission  List,  a  name  which  fits 
exactly  into  the  first  gap  in  the  Mission  List,  as  Eleazer"s  fits  exactly 
into  the  second. 

I  am  thus  brought  to  the  third  question, 

IIL  When  was  Eleazer  Williams  born?  The  fact  that  Konante- 
wanteta could  give  no  date,  the  fact  that  she  was  a  frequent  visitor 
at  Lake  George,  render  this  question  difficult.  I  agree  with  Mr. 
Hanson  that  when  he  wrote  nothing  certain  was  known  concerning 
the  problem.^-  It  is  sure,  however,  that  no  authority  produced  by 
him  has  carried  the  birth  date  back  to  March,  1785 — the  time  of  the 
dauphin's  birth.  Much  reliance  has  been  placed  upon  Eleazer's  own 
statement'-^"  in  his  application  for  masonic  membership  in  Green  Bay 
in  1824  that  he  was  then  thirty-two  years  of  age,  that  is,  born  about 
1792.  Apart,  however,  from  the  circumstance  that  Eleazer  as  an  adult 
was  notoriously  unreliable  in  the  matter  of  vital  statistics,  an  inspec- 
tion of  the  Mission  List  will  show  that  for  physical  reasons  1792  was 
an  impracticable  if  not  an  impossible  year.  Nevertheless  in  the  ab- 
sence of  additional  authentic  information  which  Eleazer  appears 
never  to  have  possessed,  the  above  statement  estops  him  from  his 
later  claim  that  he  was  born  in  1785,  especially  when  in  185 1  he  assert- 
ed^-^  that  in   1812  he  was  twenty-three  or  twenty-four  years   old. 

No  opinion  worthy  of  a  second's  thought  or  of  a  feather's  weight 
has  thrown  the  date  of  Eleazer's  birth  back  of  the  second,  or  later, 
gap  in  the  Mission  List.  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams,  the  author  of  The 
Williams  Family  writes''^  that  Eleazer  frequently  gave  1790  as  about 
his  birth  year;   Calvin   Colton,   his   school-mate,   states^"   in   1830   that 

91.  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VI,  321;  Ilauson's  The  Lj.?t 
Prince,  435. 

92.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  189.  It  is  i)leasant  occasionally  to  agree  -with 
Mr.  Hanson  whose  statements  of  fact  are  not  seldom  ludicrous.  Thus  on  page  184 
Colonel  Ephraim  Williams  is  described  as  "an  honored  ancestor  of  tha  Williams 
family."  But  infants  in  the  genealogy  of  New  England  families  know  that  Colonel 
Williams,  honored  though  he  was  and  is,  was  a  bachelor.  Sheldon's  Deeifleld  II,  378; 
Everett's  Address,  (in  Everett's  Orations  and  Speeches  II,  232).  As  to  the  relia- 
bility of  Mr.  Hanson's  statements  in  Harp  We  a  lionvliou  Anions  Vs?  read  the 
Chaumont  letter  in  Putnam's,  II,  117. 

93.  The  original  application  is  in  the  library  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  So- 
ciety.    See  it  printed  in  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,    Wis.    Hi^t.   Coll.   VI,  316. 

94.  Williams'    Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   6fi. 

95.  Williams'  Redeemed  Captive,  176.  In  1851,  Eleazer,  visiting  with  Dr,  S. 
W.  Williams,  spoke  in  the  latter's  hearing  of  being  the  dauphin.  S  ma  one  of  hi.s 
host's  family  having  enquired  his  age,  he  replied:  "If  I  am  a  Williams  I  am  so  old, 
but  if  I  am'  the  daupliin  I  am  older." 

96.  Colton's  Tour,    I,    158. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  151 

Eleazcr  in  1800  was  "perhaps  ten  years  old;"  Mr.  Hal'c,  with  whose 
lather  at  Northampton  Eleazer  was  a  pupil,  says^'^  that  when  he 
first  saw  Eleazer  in  1800  the  latter  was  then  but  ten  years  of  age; 
Governor  Williams  of  Vermont  who  knew  Eleazer  from  childhood 
supposed"^  he  was  born  in  1790,  and  two  Indians  of  Caughnawaga 
who  were  children  with  him  declared  their  opinion  in  1853  that  he 
was  about  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age  when  he  first  went  to  the 
United  States,  which  time  is  known  to  be  i8oo.^9  The  documents  of 
Deacon  Nathaniel  Ely  of  Longmeadow,  at  whose  home  Eleazer  be- 
gan to  live  in  1800,  vary  in  giving  his  birth  year  (omitting  one  palpable 
error  of  1781)  between  1787  and  I788^oo__^}^g  latter  date  preponderating. 
Indeed.  1788  is  the  year  which  Mr.  Edward  H.  Williams,  jr.,  of 
Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  has  adopted  as  the  true  one  from  evidence  se- 
cured during  his  genealogical  researches. ^''i  It  will  be  observed  that 
all  these  opinions  focus  in  the  space  which  I  have  called  the  second 
i.;ap  in  the  Mission  List,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  years  1787,  1788,  1789 
;in(l  early  1790 — an  approximation  which  agrees  with  his  mother's 
uncontradicted  averment  that  Eleazer  was  her  foui'th  child.^*'-  For 
myself  I  place  implicit  reliance  upon  the  date  ascertainable  from  a 
letter  concerning  Eleazer  written  April  6,  181 1,  to  the  Rev.  John 
Brodhead  Romeyn.  D.  D.,  of  New  York  by  the  Rev.  Richard  S. 
-Storrs.  the  successor  of  the  Rev.  Stephen  Williams  in  Longmeadow 
church.  Mr.  Storrs,  writing  on  the  authority  of  the  lad's  father  says, 
"Eleazer  Williams  came  to  this  town  in  January  of  the  year  1800: 
the  ]\Iay  following  he  was  twelve  years  old."io3  That  is.  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams was  born  in  May,  1788,  and  as  the  dauphin  of  France  was 
horn  Alarch  27.  1785,  we  have  here  a  sort  of  natal  alibi.  Banishing 
now  all  assumptions  and  suppositions  I  lay  down  as  a  fact  of  history — 
for  "History,  like  the  elephant's  trunk,  concerns  herself  with  very  " 
little  things" — that  Eleazer  Williams  was  the  son  of  Thomas  and 
Mary  Ann  Williams  and  that  he  was  born  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
George  in  May,  1788. 

The  name  bestowed  on  this  son  is  not  without  interest  in  connec- 
tion with  his  ancestry.  His  great  progenitor  Eunice  Williams  died, 
it  will  be  remembered,  in  1786.  Her  grandfather's  name  was  Eleazer: 
lier  eldest  brother's  name  was  Eleazer.  Is  it  too  much  to  suppose 
that  Eunice  had  instructed  her  family  concerning  her -New  England 
kin?     W^ould  not  Thomas  be  quick  to  honor  her  memory   when   his 


97.  Williams'   Redeemed   Captive,    176. 

98.  Willi.nms'   Redeemed  Captive,   183. 

99.  Smith's    Klpnzer   Willijuns,    Wis.    Hist,    Cull.    VI.    .114. 

100.  Hanson's  The  lyost   Prinre,    18'>. 

101.  I.pttpr,   Mny  2.   ]89(;,    from  Edwanl   11.    Willhiins,   Jr. 

102.  Sniitli's    Elonzor    Williams,    Wis.    Ilisl.    Cll.    VI,    .-Sir 
Priiicp.    432. 

10.^.     U)n"'MCiul<.u'    (•■■iii.niiial,    2:!0. 


152  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

next  son  was  born?  Here  the  Storrs  letter  again  speaks:  "Elcazcr 
was  baptized,  as  is  supposed,  in  his  infancy  by  a  Catholic  priest.  His 
father  informed  me  that  he  named  him  after  his  granduncle  Eleazer 
Williams,  first  minister  of  Mansfield,  Connecticut."^'** 

Vivid  pictures  are  preserved  of  Eleazer's  boyhood  at  Caughna- 
waga,  beginning  with  his  third  year.  Clad  only  in  a  shirt,  bare-footed 
and  bare-limbed  he  roamed  about  the  Indian  hamlet,  suffering  from 
exposure  to  cold  and  storms,  and  scarring  his  legs  from  rough  con- 
tact with  rocks,  briars  and  thorns.  These  inclemencies,  a  fall  over  a 
precipitous  cliflf  at  Lake  George,  the  scrofulous  tendencies  in  the  Wil- 
liams family,  and  the  self-infliction,  later  in  life,  by  means  of  lashc-s 
and  tartar-emetic,  of  blisters  suggesting  marks  of  shackles  and  other 
injuries,  go  a  long  way  to  explain  the  brands  and  scars  upon  Eleazer's 
adult  person,ios  the  sight  of  which  made  Mr.  Hanson  cry.io« 

Much  has  been  attempted  to  be  made  of  these  scars  as  establish- 
ing the  identity  of  the  princely  youth,  who  died  at  ten  years  in  1795. 
with  the  man  who  after  1848  and  after  he  was  sixty  years  of  age 
exhibited  these  marks  for  the  first  time  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
such  identity.^*''''  Yet  this  kind  of  evidence  is  fragile,  is  deceptive.  On 
the  bodies  of  several  persons  may  be  often  seen  scars  so  similar  that 
at  a  short  distance  of  time  it  is  impossible  to  remember  how  they  are 
distinguishable.  Yet  in  the  instance  in  hand,  there  is  an  interval  ol 
more  than  half  a  century.  Scars  also  wear  out  in  the  course  of  time. 
They  also  may  be  simulated. ^^^  "Such  imprints  are  not  protected 
from  piracy  by  any  law  of  copyright."!''^  Eleazer  apparently  produced 
scars  to  order.  When  the  Dauphin  articles  first  appeared  in  Putnim's, 
Eleazer  had  ready  the  wounds  upon  his  legs  to  correspond  with 
.young  Louis'  legs.^^o  But  when  Beauchesne's  volumes  arrived  from 
beyond  seas  and  disclosed  that  the  young  prince  had  had  scars  upon 
his  arms,  lo!  Eleazer  found  these  also  upon  his  own  upper  limbs. m 
One  of  the  most  graphic  scenes  in  connection  with  Eleazer's  persona- 
tion of  royalty  was  when  in  the  dim  religious  light  of  a  church  he 
exhibited  to  Dr.  Vinton,  Dr.  Hawks  and  Mr.  Hanson  an  inoculation 


104.  Longmeadow    Cei  tennial,    230. 

105.  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VI.  .-ilS,  .^14:  Letter?,  April 
6,   15,   May  11,   1896,   from  Edward  H.    Williams,  .1r. 

106.  Vinton's    Louis    XVII    and   Eleazer  Williams,    Putnam's,    II,    n.    s.,    340. 

107.  Hanson's  Tlie  Lost  Prince,  395;  Evans'  Tlie  Stor.r  of  Louis  XVII.,  70: 
Egeland's  Tlie  Dauphin  in  Green  Bay,  in  Door  Ckiuiity  Advocate.  D?C3mbjr  22,  189i: 
Lost  Dauphin  of  France,  in  Milwaukee  Sentinel.  December  20.  1894:  Waterman's 
"The  Lost  Prince,"  in  Chicago  Inter-Ocean  of  February  6,   1895. 

108.  Wharton  &   Stillg's  Medical  .Jurisprudence,    III,    §640. 

109.  The   Athenaeum,    February  3,    1894,    page   142. 

110.  Hanson's  Have  We  a  Bourbon  Among  Us?— Piitnfira's,   I.   198. 

111.  Simms'    Iroquois   Bourbon,   163. 


HTS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  153 

mark  upon  his  shoulder  in  the  shape  of  a  crescent,  to  correspond  with 
a  like  mark  which  the  duchesse  d'  Angouleme  had  stated  would  be 
found  upon  the  royal  shoulder  of  her  genuine  brother. ^i- 

Returning  now  to  Eleazer's  childhood:  While  his  father  was  visit- 
ing Longmeadow  in  the  winter  of  1796-7,  Deacon  Nathaniel  Ely,  jr.,^^^ 
(whose  wife  was  Thomas  Williams'  second  cousin)  proposed  to  Thom- 
as that  he  send  to  Longmeadow  one  of  his  sons  to  attend  school. 
The  proposition  was  favorably  received  but  at  first  came  to  nothing. 
In  December,  1799,  Deacon  Ely  sent,  through  a  neighbor  traveling 
in  Canada,  a  letter  to  Thomas  containing  an  oft'er  to  receive  two  of 
his  sons  to  be  educated.  The  motive  was  a  religious  one — that  the 
youths  would  become  missionaries  to  their  race.^^*  Accordingly 
on  January  23,  i8oo^^-^  Thomas,  with  Eleazer  and  a  younger  son, 
arrived  in  Longmeadow  and  the  lads  began  to  live  in  the  family  of 
Mr.  Ely. 

A  few  sentences  from  Colton's  Tour  of  the  American  Lakes  will 
give  a  photograph  of  these  two  Lidian  boys  as  they  emerged  from  un- 
civilized and  sylvan  scenes  into  the  routine  of  a  New  England  school. 
Mr.  Colton  was  a  pupil  at  Longmeadow  where  Eleazer  and  his  brother 
began  their  studies  and  w-as  an  eyewitness  of  what  he  has  printed. 
His  book  was  published  in  1833: 

From  the  wil(lne.ss  of  tticir  natui-e  and  habits  it  was  necessary  for  the  master 
to  humour  their  eccentricities  until  they  might  gradually  accommodate  themselves  lo 
discipline;  and  but  for  the  benevolent  object  in  view,  and  tl  e  gond  anticipated,  it  was 
no  small  sacrifice  to  endure  the  di.sorder  which  their  manners  at  first  created.  Unu.'^ed 
to  restraint  and  amazed  at  the  orderly  scenes  around  them,  they  would  suddenly  jump 
and  cry  Umph!  or  some  other  characteristic  and  guttuial  exc'amation,  and  then  per- 
haps spring  across  the  room  and  malje  a  true  Indian  assault  upon  a  child  on  whom 
they  had  fixed  their  eyes,  to  his  no  small  affright  and  consternation;  or  else  dart  out 
of  the  house  and  take  to  their  heels  in  such  a  direction  as  their  whims  might  incline 
them.  Confinement  they  could  ill  endure  at  first;  and  so  long  as  they  did  nothing  but 
create  disorder  (and  that  they  did  very  effectually)  they  were  indulged  until  by  de- 
crees they  became  used  to  discipline  aijd  began  to  learn.  Their  first  attempts  by  ini:- 
tation  to  enunciate  the  letters  of  the  Koman  alphabet  were  quite  amusing — so  difficult 
was  it  to  form  their  tongues  and  other  organs  to  the  proper  shapes.  If  the  children 
of  1lie  scliool   laughed   (as  thrro   was   some  apolcrgy    for  doirii;!    theso    b:>ys   would   soirc- 


112.     Vinton's   Louis   XVII.   and   Kleazer  Williams.     Putnam's,    II  n.   s.   3^9. 

ll.'J.  Martha  Williams,  born  in  May,  173.3,  the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Steiihen 
Williams  of  Ijongmeadow,  married  January  4,  1759,  Dr.  Samuel  Keyr.olds  and  had 
among  other  children,  a  daughter  Elizabeth.  Upon  the  death  of  Dr.  Reynolds  his 
widow  became,  on  November  15,  1787,  the  fourth  wife  of.  Deacon  Nathan!' 1  Ely. 
He  died  in  his  eighty-fourth  year  December  26,  1799,  and  liis  widow  died  aged  ninety- 
two  years  February  18,  1825.  Deacon  Ely's  S(n  of  his  first  marriage,  De.-.con  Nathan- 
iel Ely.  .iunior,  married  February  16.  1786,  said  B  izal  eth  Reyrol:'s.  This  s  th.- 
Deacon  Ely  of  the  lext.  Register  XXXV,  238;  I.ongmeado^<-  Cent:nnial,  Appendix, 
page  00.  Williams'  Williams  Family  89  is  obscure  and  inco)r  ct  here.  Deacon  Ely, 
jr.,    died  June   13,    1808. 

114.  Ij<3ngmoadow   Centennial,    230,    231. 

115.  Hanson's    Tlic    Lost    Prince,    194. 


154  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

times  cast  a  contemptuous  roll  of  the  eye  over  the  li£tle  assembly  and  then  leaviug 
an  "Umph!"  behind  them  would  dart  out  of  the  house  in  resentment. 116 

I  request  unprejudiced  readers  to  answer  whether  either  of  these 
boys  prior  to  entering  Longmeadow  school  had  ever  dwelt  in  the 
palace  of  Versailles,  and  had  his  infantile  intellect  enlightened  or  his 
manners  moulded  by  the  best  instructors  in  France. 

But  aided  by  earnest  teachers  and  assisted  by  salutary  domestic 
training,  the  young  Indian  foresters  slowly  began  to  tame.  The  de- 
velopment of  Eleazer's  powers  and  capacities  was  not  slow,  although 
as  will  be  disclosed  he  never  became  a  great  scholar  or  even  a  studious 
man.  With  the  example  of  Deacon  Ely  before  him  he  seems  to  have 
become  quite  apt  as  a  diarist,  and  from  his  journals,  if  the  documents 
printed  as  such  l)y  Air.  Hanson  can  be  accepted  as  contemporary 
with  their  dates,  some  opinion  can  be  formed  of  his  mental  state. 
These  writings,  which  Mr.  Hanson  judges^^'^  began  about  1802  or 
1803,  are  what  might  be  expected  from  a  youth  of  fifteen  or  thereabouts, 
backward  in  his  education,  and  hampered  by  his  early  environment, 
yet  struggling  for  a  more  ambitious  career  than  that  of  a  hunter. 
That  he  was  influenced  by  the  p'ety  of  his  benefactor,  yet  unskilled 
in  the  expression  of  befitting  thoughts  may  be  judged  from  an  entry 
of  December  9,  1802,  in  his  Journal:'^'^^  "God  is  once  more  pleased 
to  send  our  father.  He  came  to-day  about  sundown  and  brought 
us  news  that  my  sister  is  sick.  God  be  praised."  The  diary  of  Dea- 
con Ely  shows  that  in  these  early  years  of  Longmeadow  life  Eleazer 
was  much  subdued  by  religious  influences  and  while  under  their 
sway  he  recorded  his  age  to  be  thirteen  years  when  he  first  reached 
Longmeadow.'' 1"  A  seemingly  impaired  state  of  health,  his  unfa- 
miliarity  with  routine  and  discipline,  drove  him  to  travel  as  a  portion 
of  his  education.  Tims,  in  1805,  he  and  Deacon  Ely  were  in  Boston; 
later  in  the  year  he  was  in  Canada.  Li  1806  he  began  to  study  with 
Dr.  Welch  of  Mansfield,  Connecticut,  where  descendants  of  the 
Rev.  John  Williams  resided.  In  May  1807  he  was  at  Hartford  where 
he  met  President  Dwight  of  Yale  College  who  noticed  what  others 
later  noticed,  that  he  little  resembled  his  Indian  ancestors.^-"  In 
November,  1807,  still  seeking  health  he  visited  Dartmouth  College.^-' 
He  must  have  tarried  here  some  little  time  in  study,  for  Parkman 
writes^--   that   Eleazer   was   "educated   at   Dartmouth,"   and   the    Hon- 

116.  Coltnn's  Tour  I.  102.  Tiie  autluir  must  liave  fui-KittGii  this  p  iss:ii;e  when 
he  wrote  The   Lost   Prince,    in   Putnam  III,    202.   200. 

117.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  198. 

118.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  199. 

119.  Hanson's    Tlio    Lnst    Prince,    196. 

120.  Dwight's   Travels.    II,    69. 

121.  Hanson's   The    Lost    Prince,    216. 

122.  Parkman's  Ilalf-Ccntury  of  Conflict,  87.  Tl.e  .■nithm-  .'f  llisi<  ry  of  llie 
Dauphin,  in  United  States  Magazine  and  Democratic  Review  fur  .Tii'y.  1849,  pnge  K!. 
says    that    Eleazer    was    sent    to    the    Academy    connected    \vi  h    r):ir  nmutli    and    su- 


HIS  FORERUNNEES,  HIMSELF.  155 

orable  Norman  Williams  of  Vermont  has  preserved  the  circumstance 
that  he  made  young  Eleazer's  acquaintance  while  the  latter,  of  about 
twenty  years  of  age  or  thereabouts,  was  a  student  in  Hanover.  Eleazer 
was  then,  so  Mr.  Norman  Williams  said,  a  very  pompous  person, 
wore  a  tinsel  badge  or  star  on  his  left  breast  and  styled  himself  Count 
de  Lorraine. ^23  This  trifling  affectation  seems  whimsical  enough 
while  reading  in  Eleazer's  Journal^-'*'  his  comment  on  the  Hanover 
students:  "The  young  gentlemen  appear  to  be  scholars,  but  I  per- 
ceive that  there  is  something  wanting  in  them  to  make  them  complete 
gentlemen.     Modesty  is  the  ornament  of  a  person." 

In  December,  1809,  he  became  a  pupil  of  the  Rev.  Enoch  Hale  of 
West  Hampton  with  whom  he  continued  nominally  until  August,  1812. 
During  the  early  part  of  this  period  he  did  much  traveling,  making 
among  other  tours  a  journey  to  the  Caughnawagas,  at  the  instance  of 
the  American  Board  of  Missions,  to  ascertain  the  prospect  of  intro- 
ducing Protestantism  among  his  own  people.  It  was  during  this 
period  also  that  he  first  came  into  close  contact  with  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  person  of  Bishop  Hobart  of  New  York 
"who  even  at  that  early  day  was  attracted  by  him  and  showed  him 
much  attention. "i2!J  Early  in  181 1  he  again  visited  Caughnawaga  on 
a  similar  mission  to  his  former  errand,  but  upon  this  trip  new- 
influences  were  brought  to  bear  upon  him.  The  Jesuits  approached 
him  with  a  proposition  to  accept  authority  from  their  bishop  as  a 
teacher  to  the  Indians  of  his  tribe.     Although  educated  by  Congrega- 


tained  a  good  reputation  for  scbnlai'Ship  and  Christian  character.  Tliat  lie  was  no', 
in  the  college  proper  is  sliown  by  the  absence  of  his  name  from  tl^e  rerorrts.  t'-easiu'v 
reports,  catalogues  and  like  papers  relating  to  that  Instituti  in.  Sr'i'  I'lesidcit  Tu  le- 
er's letter,  August  2."),   1806. 

123.  Xornian  Williams,  born  October  G,  1791.  was  the  eldest  son  of  tl:e  Hon- 
orable Jesse  and  Hannah  (Palmer  of  Stonington,  Conn.)  Willi-imii.  Je-se  was  a^soe'- 
ate  judge  of  the  common  pleas  of  Windsor  County,  Vermont,  and  was  elected  presid- 
ing judge.  Declining  this  trust  be  was  for  many  years  judge  of  the  Hartford,  Ver- 
mont, district.  His  son  Norman  was  also  a  lawyer,  .Secretary  of  the  Vermont  sen- 
ate, Secretary  of  State  of  Vermont,  State  Senator,  and  for  nearly  thirt.v  years 
County  Clerk  of  Windsor  County.  His  wife  Mary  Ann  Wentworth  Brown  devised  the 
great  seal  of  the  state  and  the  seals  of  several  counties  and  courts.  Their  son  Dr. 
Edward  H.  Williams,  frequently  mentioned  in  lliis  pai  er,  and  l)y  whom  his  father's 
facts  have  reached  me,  has  built  on  the  old  liomestead  in  Worxlstock  a  free  me- 
morial library  to  his  father.  These  biographical  morsels  do  not  seem'  foreign  to  this 
narrative.  Its  truth  depends  much  on  the  veracity  and  integrity  of  these  gentlemen, 
and  their  possession  of  these  traits  is  aliumlantly  shown  by  the  positions  of  trust 
and   responsibility   uniformly  held   by   them. 

124.  Han.son's  The  Lost  Prince,  210. 

12.5.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  218.  The  Rev.  Benjamin  Jtotire.  D.  D.,  Bishop 
of  New  York,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Montain  of  Montreal  were  rsp- elally  urgent  tli;\t 
Eleazor  siKiuld  join  the  Episcopal  communion,  prnmising  everything  and  anything 
towards  the  completion  of  his  education  and  tlie  preparation  for  missionar.v  labor. 
.\t  tliis  time  Deacon  Ely  was  dead  and  the  Congregaticnalists  found  it  diflBciilt  to 
provide   for  Eleazer's   support.     Tx)ngmoadow   Centennial   23f>.    231 . 


156  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

tionalists  and  attracted  towards  the  Episcopalians  he  was  not  averse 
to  this  new  offer.  Indeed  he  is  said  actually  to  have  been  commis- 
sioned by  the  Jesuits  as  a  teacher  and  to  have  received  from  them  a 
good  church  library  with  prayer-books  and  missals^^s — incongruous 
companions  for  his  collection  of  the  unprelatical  sermons  of  his  ances- 
tor, the  Rev.  John  Williams,  which  sermons  in  large  number  he  had 
brought  away  from  New  England  upon  his  various  trips,  to  be  used 
during  his  later  ministerial  peregrinations  as  his  own  effusions I^-' 

One  or  two  early  criticisms  upon  him  the  Storrs  letter  of  i8n 
considers:  "I  have  heard  it  objected  to  Eleazer  that  he  appeared 
fickle,  but  who  would  rationally  expect  that  an  Indian  would  at  once 
l>ecome  steady?  I  have  heard  it  said'  that  he  was  assuming;  this  no 
one  will  think  strange  who  considers  how  much  he  has  been  flattered 
and  caressed  by  many  of  the  first  characters  in  New  England."i28 

Now  that  Eleazer's  life  in  New  England  has  ended  by  his  return 
to  Caughnawaga  it  may  not  be  improper  to  enquire  where  tlic  income 
arose  for  all  this  private  tutoring  for  the  young  student,  this  travel- 
ing liither  and  yon  about  the  United  States  and  Canada.  Where, 
urge  Mr.  Hanson  and  Mrs.  Evans,  save  from  some  mysterious  French- 
men who  were  supporting  this  exiled  Bourbon. ^-^  Mr.  Hanson  has 
even  furnished  the  name  of  the  agent  who  acted  between  Thomas 
Williams  and  the  French  purse,  and  has  given  his  authority  for  his 
statement.is"  But  after  Eleazer  Williams'  death  this  somewhat  per- 
plexing matter  straightened  itself  out.  His  papers  including  a  Jour- 
nal of  a  great  part  of  his  life  and  copies  of  apparently  all  his  letters, 
filling  six  or  eight  cases,  came,  in  or  about  1867,  into  the  possession 
of  the  Rev.  Charles  F.  Robertson,  later  the  Episcopal  bishop  of  Mis- 
souri. Among  the  documents  found  and  inspected  by  Mr.  Robertson 
were  the  original  bills  for  the  education  of  Eleazer  and  his  brother, 
together  with  evidence  of  their  payment  by  the  missionary  societies 
of  }klassachusetts,  which  expected  that  these  Indian  youths  instructed 
at  their  expense  would  he  their  gospel  heralds  among  the  dwellers 
oF  the  forest.     Both  the  boys  were  wholly  educated  at  the  charge  of 

12G.  Ellis'  New  York  Indiaus.  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  11,  41S;  Ellis'  Kecollectioa?;, 
Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VII,  243.  In  the  last  article  it  is.  stated  that  wh2u  one  of  th^  Gris- 
nons  of  Green  Bay  was  d.ving  in  1S23  Mr.  Williams  "offered  the  consolations  of  the 
clmrcU  for  the  dying,  reading  in  French  and  Latin  from  the  Roman  missal."  A 
note,  page  243,  adds,  "But  Williams  never  openly  attempted  to  teacli  a-  a  Catholic 
priest." 

127.  So  I  infer  from  Ellis'  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VII,  l2G:  ICIli.-;' 
K1e;izi'r  Williams.  Wis.  Hist.   Coll.  VIII,  S24. 

]2S.     Longmeadow   Centennial,    230.   231. 

129.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  190,  470;  Hanson's  Have  Wc  a  Bourbon  Anion;; 
Us?  Tutnam  I,  202:  Evans'  The  Story  of  Louis  XVII.  20;  Wilder's  The  Bnirbon  Who 
Xever  Reigned,  Knickerbocker,  LII.  447. 

130.  Hanson's   Tlie   Tjost   Prince,    190. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  157 

these  benevolent  organizations.^""^  Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Thomas  Williams  was  not  poor  as  Indians  go.  At  any  rate,  just 
prior  to  the  war  of  1812  he  was  enjoying  an  annuity  and  an  estate 
which  even  with  his  large  family  would  have  permitted  him  to  con- 
tri!)utc  not  a  little  towards  the  tuition  and  traveling  expenses  of  the 
lads,  or,  rather,  of  Eleazer,  for  the  yotinger  brother  did  not  continu- 
ously pursue  his  English  studies. '^- 

As  to  the  mystei'ious  inflow  of  French  money  it  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  there  was  none  and  no  agent  for  any,  for  the  entire  incident 
was  a  fabrication  which  Eleazer  palmed  ofif  upon  the  public  through 
The  .llbaity  Knickerbocker.  To  this  newspaper,  under  a  fictitious 
signature,  Eleazer  sent  a  communication  which  was  the  origin  of  all 
the  stories  concerning  foreign  contributions  for  his  maintenance  and 
tuition.  Mr.  Robertson  found  the  draft  or  a  copy  of  this  communica- 
tion in  Eleazer's  handwriting  among  his  effects. i^"  The  assertion  of 
foreign  support  for  him  sprang  entirely  from  his  imagination.  There 
were  not  a  few  cases,  some  of  which  will  disclose  themselves  later, 
where  incidents  favoring  Eleazer's  claim  to  be  the  dauphin  were  insin- 
uated upon  the  public  through  newspaper  letters,  claiming  to  be 
written  by  persons  struck  l)y  pertinent  facts,  but  really  emanating 
irom  the  fertile,  ingenious  and  mischievous  brain  of  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams.^^^  This  circumstance  proves  that  Eleazer  was  not  inert  and 
supine  in  the  matter  of  his  dauphinship  as  his  clerical  supporters  so 
often  chorused,  but  was  cunningly  and  artfully,  yet  persistently,  push- 
ing his  fraud  upon  public  attention.  So  alert  was  he  that  he  solicited 
his  friends  to  find  publishers  for  his  various  articles.  In  July.  1848, 
he  wrote  'Mr.  E.  Irving  of  New  York  thanking  him  for  his 
trouble  in  going  to  half-a-dozen  offices  in  order  to  get  a  notice  of  the 
dauphin  printed. ^^j 

It  was  doubtless  in  anticipation  of  permanent  occupation  as  in- 
structor of  his  fellow  Indians  that 'Eleazer  prepared,  and  published  at 
Burlington,  Vermont,  in  January,  1813,  ./  fracf  on  man's  f^rimitive 
rectitude,  his  fall  and  his  rccoz'cry  through  Jesus  Christ,  and,   in   P  a'ts- 

131.  Robertson's  The  Last  of  tbe  Bourbon  Story,  Putnam's,  II  n.  s.  93.  See 
also   >[atbcs'  Pretender  to  a  Throne,   New  York  Times.   February   IC.   IS9C. 

132.  The  Storrs  letter  in  Longmeadow  Centennial,  231,  .says  that  in  the  winter 
of  1S03  Thomas  and  his  wife  risited  Lnngmeadow  and  reported  that  unless  they 
carried  one  or  both  of  the  boy.s  home  the  priest  would  escnmniunicate  them.  The 
younger  was  therefore  returned  to  Caughnawaga.  but  after  a  year  resumed  his  studies 
at  Longmeadow.     This  time  he  remained  four  years  and  returned  to  Canada  for  good. 

133.  Robertson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon  Story,   Putnam's,  II  n.   s.  93. 

134.  Draper's  Additional  Notes,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VIII,  300:  Robertson's  The 
Last   of   tho   Bourbon    Story.    Putnam's    II.    n.    s.    97. 

135.  Robcrt.son's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon  Story,  Putna)n's  II.  u.  s.  97.  De 
Quincey,  writing  in  1853,  speaks  of  the  spiritual  absorption  of  Eleazer  and  his  in- 
ilifTerenco  to  his  high  rank.  But  the  author  had  only  Hanson's  autlnrily  in  iiis  first 
T^otnam   article.      Autobiographic   Skrt^i'f;:.    ."48. 


158  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

burg-  in  the  same  year,  A  spelling  book  in  the  language  of  the  seven 
Iroquois  nations. ^^^'  But  if  he  commended  himseU'  to  his  people 
as  an  author,  he  did  not  so  commend  himself  as  an  agent.  Empow- 
ered by  the  Caughnawagas  in  1812  to  draw  from  the  state  of 
New  York  an  annuity  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars  due  them 
upon  some  land  transfers,  he  received  this  sum  regularly  every  year 
from  1812  until  1820;  but  not  one  cent  of  it  ever  reached  the  annui- 
tants. In  1820  by  reason  of  representations  made  by  the  Canadian 
government  to  the  state  of  New  York  payment  to  the  unfaithful 
steward  was  suspended. i^'''  On  account  of  this  transaction  he  lost 
favor  and  influence  at  Caughnawaga.  Perhaps  this  incident  helps 
to  explain  the  fact  that  when  a  half  century  later  Eleazer  was  wrapt 
in  his  shroud  not  a  Mohawk  brave  attended  his  funeral.'"'^ 

Eleazer  Williams  followed  his  father  into  the  American  army  in 
1813,  to  the  disappointment  and  grief  of  his  beneficent  patrons  in  New 
England. 130  gy  invitation  he  joined  the  troops  of  General  Brown  un- 
der good  pay  in  confidential  service,  collecting  through  the  Canada 
Indians  important  information  of  the  movements  of  the  British  forces 
and  thereby  in  several  instances  rendering  very  valuable  assistance 
to  the  American  interests. 1*"  For  this  service  as  well  as  for  active 
military  operations  he  received  the  commendation  of  his  officers  for 
zeal,  bravery  and  fidelity. ^^^  Eleazer's  own  accounts  of  his  achieve- 
ments in  the  field  are  contained  in  his  lournal^*"^  and  in  his  biog- 
raphy of  his  father^'^s— accounts  which  are  so  fulsome  and  so  self- 
laudatory  as  to  suggest  the  thought  that  no  historian  of  the  war  of 
1812  has  properly  awarded  the  laurels  of  success.  In  the  biography 
the  author  calls  himself  "Lieutenant  Colonel  Eleazer  Williams,"  and 
"Colonel  E.  Williams  (the  Superintendent  General)"!^* — titles  which 
his  panegyrists  Mr.  Hanson  and  Mrs.  Evans  do  not  bestow^,  titles 
which  are  not  accorded  him  by  the  representatives  of  the  governmeni; 
in  passing  upon  his  application  for  a  pension.  Doubtless  like  the 
very  nebulous  appellation  of  Count  de  Lorraine  these  military  honors 
were  self-bestowed. 

In    the    land    battle    at    Plattsiiurg    Sc'pteml)cr    14,    1S14.    he    was 


1.3C.  Catalogue   of   the   Wiscousin   Slate   Historical   Society,    V,    500. 
13T.  Smitli's   Eleazer  William.?,    Wis.    Hist.    Cnll.    VI,    332.      Tliis   refer,  nee   men- 
tions the  exposure  of  Eleazer's  claims  in  tlic  Xi>\v  Yurlv  Worlil.   Seiitemlirr  lit.   1807. 

138.  Huntoon's    Klcazer   Williams,    27. 1. 

139.  Colton's  Tour,    I,    164. 

140.  Ellis'    New    York    Indians,    M'is.    Hist.    Cull.    II,    41S. 

141.  Report   No.  303  of.  House   Committee  on   Military  Aff.iirs.    rlnim   of  Klo:i/f>r 
Williams,  35th   Congress,    First   Session,    April  17.    1858. 

142.  Hanson's  The   Eost    Prince,    2.30. 

143.  W'illianis"    To-ho-ra-swa-ne-gtn,    00. 

144.  Williams'    Te-ho-ra-Kwa-ne-gen,    GO.    78.    81.    88. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  159 

wounded  by  a  splinter  in  the  left  side/-*'^  "slightly  wounded",  as  he 
states  in  one  place ;^^"^  "a  severe  wound"  as  he  swears  in  his  applica- 
tion for  a  pension;  "not  to  that  degree  as  to  compel  me  to  leave  the 
corps,"  as  he  states  in  his  Journal.^*'  His  father's  nursing  and 
Indian  remedies  restored  him  to  health  and  strength  after  some  weeks' 
confinement.^^**  The  scar  which  this  injury  left  is  useful  to  this  nar- 
rative in  two  ways:  Many  years  later  he  exhibited  it  to  Dr.  S.  W. 
Williams  to  obtain  that  physician's  professional  opinion  as  to  whether 
such  a  wound  would  entitle  to  a  pension,  and  thus  allowed  Dr.  Wil- 
liams to  discover  that  the  unexposed  skin  of  Eleazer  was  more  the 
color  of  an  Indian  than  of  a  white  man.i^^  The  scar  was  carried,  in  a 
memorial  for  a  pension,  to  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
report  of  the  Committee  on  Pensions  of  that  body  apparently  dis- 
closes that  either  the  wound  or  the  military  service  or  both  could  not 
endure  the  rigid  scrutiny  of  men  charged  with  the  duty  of  placing 
only  the  truly  deserving  and  the  really  disabled  upon  the  roll  of  gov- 
ernment dependents.     The  report  on  the  Memorial  was  as  follows t^-''*' 

The  memorialist  sets  forth  tliat  he  was  engaged  at  sundry  times  on  the  Northern 
frontier  of  New  Yorli  during  the  last  war  with  England  in  rendering  important  serv- 
ieoR  to  the  commanding  officers  on  that  frontier,  by  whom  he  was  employed  and  tlie 
evidence  before  the  committee  sliows  that  the  memorialist  was  often  at  the  htid- 
quarters  of  said  officers  and  communicating  with  them.  He  also  states  that  he  re- 
ceived a  severe  wound  at  the  battle  of  Plattsburg.  The  committee  how.  ver  are  not 
furnished  with  any  proof  as  to  the  value  or  amount  of  service  rendered,  nor  of  it.s 
nature,  nor  of  the  degree  of  disability  occasioned  by  the  wound  received  liy  the  m;- 
morialist,  neither  can  they  ascertain  by  any  papers  in  their  possession  in  what  ca- 
pacity he  was  engaged  when  he  received  said  wound  nor  the  amount  paid  him  for 
the  service  which  he  rendered.  Under  the  circumstances  the  committee  ask  to  be' 
discharged  from  further  consideration  of  said  Memorial. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812  Thomas  with  his  soldier  sons, 
expatriated  from  Caughnawaga,  joined  his  family  at  St.  Regis. 1=1 
This  Indian  village,  bisected  by  the  present  boundary  between  New 
York  and  Canada,  was  founded  as  a  Catholic  mission  about  1754  and 
ever  since  then  has  been  the  home  of  a  resident  missionary  of  that 
church.  John  and  Zechariah  Tarbell,  captured  when  lads  at  Groton. 
Massachusetts,  became  Caughnawaga  chiefs,  and  it  was  one  of  these 
who  established  the  sanctuary  at  St.   Regis. i"- 

145.     Ellis'    Xfw  York   Indians,    Wis.    Hist.    Coll.    II,   418. 
14C.    Williams'    Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,    79, 

147.  Hanson's    The   Lost    Prince,    266. 

148.  Hanson's  The   Lost   Prince,   269. 

149.  Williams'    Redeemed   Captive,    173. 

150.  Senate  Keport,  No.  311,  31st  CdUgress,  Second  Session.  The  rrport,  dated 
February  20,   1851,    was  made  by  Senator  .John  P.    Hale. 

151.  Ellis'   New  York   Indians,   Wis,   Hist.   Coll.    II,   418. 

152.  See  Note  76  supra,:  Pocumtuck  Valley  Memorial  Associati  jn,  \'o:uine  I. 
471.  For  a  description  of  the  village  read  Da  C(  sta's  Story  of  St  Regi<;'s  Bell.  Gal- 
axy,   1870,    124. 


160  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Eleazer,  however,  was  too  restive  and  too  ambitious  to  remain 
long  in  this  seclusion.  Besides,  he  believed  himself  out  of  caste  at 
St.  Regis  for  the  determination  which  he  finally  reached  to  abandon 
the  church  in  favor  there.i"^  Quitting  alike  the  Catholic  faith  in 
which  he  was  born,  and  the  Congregational  faith  in  which  he 
had  been  reared  and  whose  societies  had  lavished  money 
upon  his  education,  he  went  to  New  York  where  in  St.  John's  Epis- 
copal Church  he  was  confirmed  by  Bishop  Hobart,  May  21,  1815.1"^ 

In  the  preceding  November  Eleazer  had  visited  at  Oneida  Castle, 
renewing  acquaintances  he  had  previously  made  with  some  Iroquois 
of  the  Oneida  tribe. ^^-^  Being  satisfied  that  these  bands  were  more 
inclined  to  Christianity  and  civilization  than  any  other  division  of 
the  Six  Nations  he  enlisted  the  sympathy  and  services  of  Bishop 
Hobart  with  a  view  to  a  mission  at  the  Castle. i"*'  Having  prepared 
a  Book  of  prayers  for  families  and  for  particular  persons,  selected 
from  the  book  of  comuwii  prayer,  in  the  language  of  the  Six  Na- 
tions, which  was  published  at  Albany  in  i8i6,i'J'  and  being  armed 
with  a  letter  from.  Bishop  Hobart,  Eleazer  on  March  23.  i8i6,i''S  was 
again  at  Oneida  Castle,  as  a  religious  teacher,  lay  reader  and  cate- 
chist. 

He  had  good  qualities  for  evangelizing  work  among  the  aborig- 
ines. He  had  become  tolerably  versed  in  the  Christian  system  and  in 
theology;  moreover,  he  was  a  natural  orator,  a  graceful  and  powerful 
speaker — most  iuA'aluablc  aids  to  persuasion  and  success  among  the 
Indians. ^^9  Had  he  been  content,  in  the  humble  avocations  of  a 
school-master  and  an  evangelist,  faithfully  to  pursue  in  sequestered 
vales  the  noiseless  tenour  of  his  way,  he  would  belike  have  rounded 
out  for  himself  a  useful  and  honourable  career.  Instead,  however, 
by  neglecting  these  pursuits,  by  stretching  out  his  hand  toward  vast 
empire  in  the  west  and  by  indulging  inane  delusions  concerning  vaster 
empire  in  the  east,  he  wrecked  his  life,  he  left  at  his  death  a  shadowed, 
not  to  say  a  dishonored,  name. 

Another  c[ualification  for  success  among  the  Indians  was  his 
thorough  mastery  of  the  Iroquois  vocabulary.  Reference  has  already 
been  made  to  his  authorship  in  that  tongue.  In  1820  in  Utica  he 
printed  another  spelling  book.^""     The  Book  of  prayers  just  alluded 

153.  Williams'    Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gon,    51.    and    Hoiiah's   note. 

154.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Ti-ince.   274. 

155.  Hanson's  The   Lost  Prince,   270. 

156.  Ellis'    New    York    Indians,   Wis.    Hist.    Coll.    II,    418. 

157.  Catalogue  of  the  Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society,  V,  566.  Eleazer  re- 
visoa  this  Prayer-book  in  1853.  Vinton's  Lonis  XVII.  and  Eleazer  Williams,  Put- 
nam's II,  n.  s.  339. 

1.58.    Hanson's  The  Ix)st  Prince.  270:   Christian  .1  urnal,   February.    l.<^17. 

159.  Ellis'   New  York   Indians,   Wis.   Hist.    Crll.   II,   419. 

160.  Catalogue  of  the  Wisconsin  State  His'orical  Society,  V,  566. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  161 

to  was  simply  a  revision  of  the  first  part  of  the  Episcopal  praj'cr-book 
which  Joseph  Brant,  he  of  Wyoming  massacre  fame,  had  previously 
translated^'^i  and  which  was  published  in  London  in  1787.1*'-  But  Eleazer 
Williams  greatly  improved  upon  Joseph  Brant  in  scientific  manipula- 
tion of  the  letters,  for  while  the  latter  employed  twenty  English  char- 
acters Eleazer  confined  himself  to  eleven. i""  This  reduction  simplified 
the  orthography  and  assisted  the  child  in  learning  to  read — an  inven- 
tion which  while  of  lasting  utility  to  the  Indians  arose  in  judgment 
against  the  discoverer,  as  the  sequel  may  show. 

Possessing  the  qualifications  just  alluded  to,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  his  labors  were  at  first  successful.  Beginning  with  that 
small  portion  of  the  Oneidas  who  had  already  become  favorable  to 
Christianity  through  the  labors  of  Occam,  Kirkland  and  Jenkins,  and 
who  became  known  as  the  first  Christian  party,  these  he  attached 
to  himself  by  his  persuasive  and  attractive  manners.  The  majority — 
nearly  three-fifths  of  the  tribe — he  attacked  with  sternness  and  author- 
ity. The  result  was  an  abjuration  of  paganism  and  an  acceptance  of 
Christianity.^^'*  Indeed,  this  Pagan  party,  to  be  known  thereafter  as 
the  second  Christian  party,  addressed  to  the  governor  of  New  York 
a  formal  renunciation  of  their  heathen  beliefs  and  practices. ^^^  Nay, 
more,  they  waited  upon  him  in  person  in  the  winter  of  1817  and  treated 
with  him  for  a  cession  of  a  portion  of  their  reservation  for  the  building 
of  a  church  and  for  providing  for  ministerial  support.  The  ed'.fice  was 
built  and  Eleazer  although  not  then  ordained  entered  it  as  minister.i^^ 

In  November,  iSig,^''^  began  the  acquaintance  between  Eleazer 
Williams  and  Albert  G.  P211is,  which  materially  influenced  the  career 
of  the  latter  and  which  enables  us  to  know  minutely  the  career  of  the 
former.  Mr.  Ellis  was  born  in  Verona,  three  miles  from  Oneida, 
August  24,  1800,  and  was  therefore  somewhat  younger  than  Eleazer. 
At  his  urgent  solicitation  young  Ellis  took  up  his  abode  at  the  Castle 
in  November,  i8ig,  with  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  teach  the 

161.  Davidson's    In   Unnamed   Wisconsin,    6S. 

162.  Catalogue  of   the   Wisconsin   State   Historical    Society,    V,    78. 

163.  Ellis'    Eleazer   Williams,    Wis.    Hist.    Coll.    VIII,    330. 

1C4.  Davidson's  In  Unnamed  Wisconsin,  C3:  Ellis'  Eleaz?r  Williims,  Wis.  Hist. 
Coll.  VIIX,  325;  Hammond's  Madison  County,   112. 

165.  The  renunciation,  whicii  is  dated  January  25,  1S17,  is  set  nut  at  le:ig  li  in 
W'illiams'  Two  Homilies,  Appendix,  p.  19. 

166.  Ellis'  New  York  Indians,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  II,  420.  In  1818  Bisiop  H  .- 
bart  confirmed  a  class  of  eight.v-nine  poreons,  instructed  and  pr.-s  nted  by  Eeizer 
Williams.      Morehouse's   Some   American   Churchmen,   44. 

167.  I  have  adopted  Draper's  year,  1S19,  (Introdnctinii  to  ICUis'  Fii'iy-foiii- 
years'  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VII.  207-208)  instead  of  1S20  as  given  by  Mr 
Ellis  himself  in  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VIII,  322.  The  earlier  date  is  mo  e  consi-t  nt  with 
other  racts  and  with  other  statements  of  Mr.  Ellis.  ?aid  Introduction  givos  a 
sketch  of  Mr.  Ellis.  He  resided  In  Wisconsin  more  than  half  a  century,  held  many 
oflBces  of  trust  and  responsibility  and  was  a  man  of  unimpeachable   integrily. 


162  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Indian  children  and  be  a  companion  for  Eleazer,  and  in  return  was  to 
receive  from  the  latter  instruction  in  Latin,  Greek  and  French.  Upon 
removing  to  the  Castle  he  found  Eleazer  residing  in  the  homestead 
of  the  sometime  deceased  head  chief  of  the  Oneidas,  Skanandoah,  to 
which  homestead  Eleazer  had  made  an  addition  for  school  purposes. 
But  young  Ellis  soon  discovered  that  instead  of  imparting  knowledge 
to  Oneida  pappooses  he  was  expected  to  have  Eleazer  Williams  for 
a  scholar,  and  that  the  sole  purpose  of  bringing  him  to  the  Castle 
was  that  he  might  teach  Eleazer  Williams  to  read,  pronounce  and 
write  the  English  language.  For  owing  either  to  facile  forgetfulnes? 
or  to  the  superficiality  of  his  New  England  training  Eleazer,  although 
he  could  understand  common  conversation,  could  neither  speak  nor 
write  the  simplest  sentences  with  accuracy.  Cases,  moods  and  tenses 
were  to  him  an  unknown  land.  To  the  last  of  Mr.  Ellis'  intimacy 
with  Eleazer  (which  extended  until  long  after  their  removal  to  Green 
Bay)  the  latter  could  not  write  five  lines  of  English  decently.  The 
framing  of  his  letters,  the  recasting  of  the  old  sermons,  the  prepara 
tion  of  his  documents,  the  correcting  of  his  journals  fell  to  his 
successive  secretaries.  As  to  other  languages,  the  only  tongue  which 
he  spoke  to  perfection  was  the  Iroquois — strong  evidence  that  he 
sprang  from  the  Caughnawaga  forests  and  not  from  the  Chateau  St. 
Cloud.  Greek  was  an  utter  stranger  to  him;  with  Latin  he  had  a 
distant  bowing  acquaintance — such  an  acquaintance  as  his  prayer- 
books  and  missals  might  impart.  As  to  French  he  could  read  nar- 
rative and  history  quite  well,  but  he  could  not  speak  a  single  word 
respectably.  His  French  wife,  of  whom  anon,  more  than  once  said 
to  him,  "Now,  Mr.  Williams,  I  do  beg  of  you  never  to  try  to  talk 
French,  you  cannot  speak  a  single  word  right."  His  French  pronun- 
ciation was  such  as  ignorant  Indians  on  the  edge  of  Canada  might 
acquire,  but  nothing  more  and  that  poorly.i*'®  And  yet  we  are  called 
upon  to  believe  that  this  Gallic  stumbler  was  reared  in  the  very  center 
of  pure  Parisian — that  his  infant  lips  were  instructed  by  Marie  An 
toinette.  that  he  was  the  brother  of  Madame  d'  Angouleme,  the  pupil 
of  the  duchess  of  Polignac  and  the  abbe  Devaux!  Semi-idiocy  for 
a  half-score  years  could  never  have  reduced  the  genuine  dauphin  to 
such  lingual  inibecilit3\ 

The  statements  just  made  as  to  Eleazer's  familiarity  with  the 
English  language  must  be  remembered  in  perusing  his  journals 
from  which  Mr.  Hanson  quotes  so  copiously.  These  journal,-; 
are  not  fresh  from  the  desk  of  the  autobiographer.  Other  pens  than 
his  must  have  arranged  the  orderly  consecution  of  sentences,  must  have 
made  numbers  and  persons,  moods  and  tenses  concordant,  must  have 


168.     Ellis'    Eleazer   Willi:iuis.    Wis.    Hist.    Coll.    VIII.    323,   324,   331,    349. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  163 

imparted  a  faultless  orthography — certainly  these  necessities  were  be- 
yond Eleazer's  powers,  although  the  ideas  were  doubtless  his. 

But  if  young  Ellis  was  not  at  the  Castle  for  the  purposes  of 
teaching  the  Oneida  childi^en  (and  during  the  four  years  of  his  stay 
there  he  was  not  once  called  upon  to  teach  them  letters)  to  what 
uses  was  put  the  school-room  addition  to  the  Skanandoah  mansion? 
To  base  uses.  Upon  every  Thursday  afternoon,  the  Indians  who 
would  attend — young  men,  young  women  and  aged  persons — were 
assembled  in  this  room  and  treated  to  a  discourse  by  Eleazer — not  to 
a  variation  of  one  of  his  ancestor's  sermons,  but  to  self-glorification. 
These  talks  were  devoted  almost  entirely  to  himself,  to  his  birth  and 
childhood  at  Caughnawaga,  to  his  infantile  precocity,  to  his  always 
victorious  strifes  with  his  playmates,  to  his  white  ancestors  of  the 
Williams  family,  to  his  nomadic  exploits  with  his  father  at  Lake 
George,  to  any  marvelous  feat  of  his  forest  life  which  would  prove 
to  his  untutored  listeners  how  mighty  a  hunter,  how  great  a  man, 
he  was.'-''^  This  man  of  reminiscences,  however,  is  the  same  one  who 
in  1851  told  Mr.  Hanson,  "I  know  nothing  about  my  infancy.  Every- 
thing that  occurred  to  me  is  blotted  out,  entirely  erased,  irrecoverably 
gone.     Rly  mind  is  a  blank  until  thirteen  or  foureen  years  of  age.''^'''' 

This  little  incident  has  its  large  significance.  If  it  be  true,  as  Mr. 
Hanson  gravely  narrates^'^^ — and  Mrs.  Evans,  of  course,  too.^'^" — 
that  Eleazer,  the  disguised  dauphin,  between  the  period  of  his  adop- 
tion by  Thomas  Williams  at  ten  years  of  age  and  his  removal  to 
Longmeadow,  had  a  fall  into  the  limpid  flood  of  Lake  George,  by 
which  a  deep  gash  was  cut  in  his  head  and  as  a  result  of  which  distinct 
recollection  began  after  a  period  of  imbecility  and  mental  unsound- 
ness, how  happens  it  that  in  these  discourses  to  the  Oneida  aborig- 
ines whose  brains  he  was  filling  with  his  own  magnificent  proportions, 
his  memory  reverted,  not  to  the  gorgeous  halls  of  the  Tuileries,  not 
to  the  gay  avenues  of  rollicking  Paris,  not  to  the  sombre  seclusion  of 
the  dreadful  Temple,  not  to  the  long  line  of  his  royal  sires  stretching 
to  Hugh  Capet,  but  to  the  leafy  retreats  of  Caughnawaga,  to  his  In- 
dian playmates  in  those  woody  shades,  to  hunting  and  trapping  and 
fishing  at  Lake  George,  to  his  austere  strain  of  pale  faced  ai  costers  in 
Deerfield  and  Roxbury? 

While  Eleazer  was  thus  exalting  his  ancestors,  one  of  them  paid 
him  a  visit.  Twice  Thomas  Williams  traveled  to  the  Castle  to  visit 
his  son  and  there  young  Ellis  made  his  acquaintance.  He  noticed, 
and   manv  others  noticed,   how  much  the   son   favored  the   father.     Tl 


Iffi).  Kllis'   Ele.T/.er  Williams,' Wis.   Hist.    Coll.   VIIl.   329. 

170.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  339. 

171.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  183. 

172.  Evans'    Story   of  Louis   XVH,    IG. 


164  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

the  son  was  Bourboiiic — and  no  one  denies  that  his  appearance,  espe- 
cially in  youth,  strongly  suggested  the  French^'^ — then  was  his  fa- 
ther Bourbonic  also,  for  the  latter  had  the  peculiar  cast  of  countenance 
stronger  than  the  son.^^^  De  Lorimier  the  head  chief  of  the  Caugh- 
nawagas  in  185 1  had  the  same  features  in  a  high  degree;  so  also  had 
Grand  Baptiste,  the  Lachine  pilot;  so  also  had  another  half-breed. 
Francis  Mount,  a  Rice  relative  of  Eleazer.  Indeed  these  "Bourbon" 
facial  characteristics  were  common  to  all  the  Caughnawagas  descended 
from  white  ancestors.  De  Lorimier  exhibited  to  Dr.  Williams  at  the 
investigation  several  members  of  the  tribe  who  had  the  peculiar  or 
Bourbon  features. ^"^  This  infantile  resemblance,  real  or  fancied,  to 
Louis  XVII,  to  which  the  attention  of  his  mother  and  himself  was 
called  in  his  childhood  by  passing  'soldiers^''^  doubtless  started  the 
busy  and  wily  mind  of  the  adult  Eleazer  upon  that  scheme  of  per- 
sonation and  deception  which  a  half-century  of  explanation  has  not, 
it  appears,  completely  exposed.^"" 

Yet  Eleazer  did  not  lack  traces  of  his  swarthy  birth.  His  skin 
was  dark  and  of  peculiar  Indian  texture.  His  hair,  eye-brows  and 
eye-lashes  were  of  the  most  inky  raven  blackness. ^'^  His  complexion 
and  hair  stamped  him  as  of  mixed  savage  and  civilized  blood;  indeed, 
one  connoisseur  writes  that  Eleazer  had  that  peculiar  tint  which  dis- 
tinguished half-breeds  among  the  Six  Nations  from  half-breeds  in  die 
west.i'i'9  His  dark  complexion,  so  opposite  from  the  blonde  features  of 
Louis  XVII. IS'*  was  noticed  by  Mrs.  Kinzie  in  1830,  who  had  she  nol 
heard  his  Connecticut  relatives  so  often  call  him  their  Indian  cousin 
might  have  thought  him  a  Mexican  or  a  Spaniard. ^^^i 

Nor  did  he  lack  decided  evidence  of  his  Williams  ancestrJ^  The 
frontispiece  portrait  in  The  Lost  Prince  shows  many  Williams  feat- 
ures. A  letter  in  my  possession  from  Edward  H.  Williams,  jr.,  too 
technical  for  insertion  and  requiring  illustrations  for  its  elucidation, 
shows  these  resemblances  in  a  convincing  manner. i''- 


173.  Eobertson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon  Story.  Putnam,  II.  n.  s.  92; 
Vinton's  Louis  XVII.  and  Eleazer  Williams,  Putnam's,  II.  ii.  s.  3.33;  P  a-.ois'  OUl  New 
York,   1G.5  n.;   Editor's  Easy  Chair,   Harpers,  June  1682,   lis. 

174.  Ellis'    Eleazer   Williams,    Wis.    Hist.    Coh.   VIII,   318. 

175.  Letters,   April   6,    15,    1896,    from  Edward   H.    Williams,    jr. 

176.  Neville's  Green  Bay,  223;   Huntonn's  Eleazer  Williams,   2."i.j. 

177.  Parkman's  Half-Century  of   Conflict,   I,    88. 

178.  Ellis'    Eleazer  Williams,   Wis.    Hist.   Coll     VIII,   348. 

179.  Trowbridge's  Eleazer  Williams,   Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   VII,  414. 

180.  Beauchesne's  Louis    XVII.,   20. 

181.  Kinzie's  Wau-bun,  52.  Eleazer  had  the  Indian  habit  of  toeintj  in,  which 
when  grown  he  tried  in  vain  to  overcome.  Letter,  May  2,  1896,  from  Edward  H. 
Williams,  .tr.  His  ears  also  betrayed  him.  Butler's  Stor.v  of  Louis  XVII.,  Th  ■ 
Nation,  May  31,  1894,  417;  Shea  on  Eleazer  Williams,  Am'.  Hist.  Record,  July  1872, 
page  300. 

182.  Letter,  May  8,  1896,  from  Edawrd  H.  Williams,  jr.  The  frontispiece  to 
this  paper  is  a  half-tone  from'  a  photograph  of  an  oil  painting  of  Eleazer  Williaus 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  165 

Notwithstanding  the  success  which  attended  Eleazer's  early  evan- 
geHzing  efforts  at  the  Castle  incidents  were  happening  which  fretted 
him,  alienated  his  friends  and  impaired  his  usefulness.  Indeed,  the 
same  dishonest  traits  which  weakened  his  hold  upon  the  Canadian 
Indians  began  to  display  themselves.  An  instance  must  be  given: 
Mention  has  been  made  of  the  little  church  which  the  Oneidas  were 
to  build  from  the  avails  of  the  transfer  of  a  portion  of  their  reserva- 
tion to  the  governor  of  New  York.  These  avails,  four  thousand  dol- 
lars, were  intrusted  to  two  gentlemen  in  Utica  who  having  implicit 
confidence  in  Eleazer  committed  them  to  him.  The  building  was  com- 
pleted at  a  cost  not  exceeding  fourteen  hundred  dollars,  but  the  bal- 
ance was  never  repaid  nor  could  the  trustees  ever  bring  Eleazer  to 
adjust  his  accounts.^ ^'^ 

More  than  this,  he  was  constantly  in  trouble  with  the  white  resi- 
dents at  Oneida  Castle  who,  rendering  to  him  their  bills  for  services 
performed  or  merchandise  delivered,  invariably  found  their  claims  con- 
tested and  payment  procrastinated.  Thus  his  reputation  began  to 
darken,  his  influence  to  wane,  among  his  white  neighbors  and  his 
Indian  flock. '-^ 

But  in  spite  of  these  domestic  troubles  Eleazer  during  his  stay  at 
the  Castle  began  to  be  widely  known  as  an  authority  on  matters  -jer- 
taining  to  the  Indians.  From  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Hartford, 
Boston,  letters  were  addressed  to  him  enquiring  about  labors  of  mis- 
sionaries among  the  Indians;  the  travels  and  discoveries  of  La  Salle, 
Hennepin,  Marquette;  early  conflicts  of  the  red  man  with  New  Eng- 
land settlements  and  topics  of  kindred  nature.  The  Rev.  Samuel  F. 
Jarvis,  D.  D.,  Colonel  Elihu  Hoyt,  Franklin  B.  Hough  and  Mrs. 
Lydia  Huntley  Sigourney,  among  others,  sought  his  experience, 
knowledge  and  study  concerning  Indian  history,  manners  and  tradi- 
tions, i*-"  Yet  there  is  grave  reason  to  fear,  in  the  cases  of  two,  at  least, 
of  these  enquirers,  that  Eleazer  Williams  wilfully  deceived  them  con- 
cerning the  massacre  at  Deerfield.  Epephras  Hoyt  published  his 
meritorious  Antiquarian  Researches  in  Greenfield,  Massachusetts, 
in  1824.  While  he  was  preparing  his  chapter  relative  to  de  Rouville's 
raid,  the  author's  brother.  Colonel  Elihu  Hoyt.  conversed  with  Eleazer 
and  learned  some  quite  new  matters  concerning  the  morning  of  Feb- 
ruary 29,  1704.  He  discovered,  for  instance,  that  Eleazer  on  a 
recent  vist  to  Canada,  had  found  a  silk  overdress  which  .Mrs.  Eunii:c 
Williams    wore    that   fateful    morning   when   the   Indians    hurried    hur 


executed   about   1833   by    Geoi'sc   Cutlin   and   now   owned   by   tho    Wisonnsiii    Stiito   His 
torical   Society. 

183.  Ellis'   Elnazpi-  Williams,  Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   VIII,   .'iSo. 

184.  Ellis'  Eleazer  Wiliiains,   Wis.  Hist.  Coll.   VIII,  .'?2.5:   .ouiiiaio  Williains'  'iv 
ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen.    Hough's  Introduction,   page  9. 

18.^.     Uobertson's  The  I>nst  of  tlie  Bourliou  .^^tury     Putnam's.  II,   ii.   s.  94. 


166  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

off  directly  after  the  sacking  of  the  village.  But  it  is  exceedingly  im- 
probable that  Mrs.  Williams  stopped  to  don  her  party  gown  on  that 
massacre  morning,  while  it  is  a  fact  that  she  was  tomahawked  one 
day's  march  out  of  Deerfield  and  her  body  left,  unplundered,  as  :t 
fell,  by  retreating  savages.  Likewise,  Eleazer  told  Colonel  Hoyt  lint 
returning  commanders  of  expeditions  were  required  to  deposit  in  one 
of  the  principal  convents  in  Canada  copies  of  the  journals  of  their  ex- 
peditions, and  that  he,  Eleazer,  had  found  in  a  convent  in  Canada  a 
copy  of  de  Rouville's  journal  of  his  raid  upon  Deerfield.  But,  no 
such  deposit  of  these  documents  in  convents  was  ever  required,  no  such 
documents  were  ever  so  deposited  and  no  eye  save  Eleazer's  seeni^ 
ever  to  have  seen  de  Rouville's  journal.  Still  again,  Eleazer  related 
to  Colonel  Hoyt  and  to  others  that  when  Deerfield  was  destroyed  th<". 
Indians  removed  the  church  bell,  conveyed  it  as  far  as  Lake  ChampUiin 
and  buried  it  there;  that  later  it  was  dug  up,  conveyed  to  Canada 
and  hung  in  the  Indian  church  at  St.  Regis.  But  apart  from  the  cir- 
cumstance that  St.  Regis  was  not  established  until  half  a  cenvurj- 
after  Deerfield  was  raided,  the  Deerfield  church  had  no  bell.^^*'  The 
practising  of  this  imposition  upon  Mrs.  Sigourney  has  given  the 
world  The  bell  of  St.  Regis^^~  Mr.  Hough,  who,  however,  perched 
the  Deerfield  bell  in  the  Caughnawaga  steeple,  seems  to  have  printed 
the  same  story  without  sufficient  investigation, ^^s  ^nd  Mr.  Longfellow 
has  accepted  it  without  question. i^''  Somewhat  later,  about  1850. 
Eleazer  attempted  a  fraud  upon  the  state  of  New  York.  He  offered 
to  sell  to  the  secretary  of  state  Marquette's  Journal  and  his  original 
map  which  Eleazer  claimed  to  have  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  Caughna- 
waga church. i^**  But  the  Caughnawaga  church  was  never  in  ruins  and 
the  original  Marquette  Journal  and  map  were,  at  the  time  Eleazer 
offered  to  sell  them,  one  of  the  chief  jewels  of  St.  Mary's  College. 
Montreal,  as  they  are  to  this  day.^^^ 

A  circumstance  which  contributed  to  the  wide  reputation  of 
Eleazer  Williams  as  an  Indianologist  was  the  scheme  which  he  either 
originated  or  actively  advanced  for  an  emigration  of  New  York  red 
men  to  the  regions  west  of  Lake  Michigan  and  the  foundation  of  an 
Indian   empire  there   over   which   he   should   reign.     With   whom   the 


I8G.  Hoyt's  Antiquarian  Researches,  193;  Register  XXVIII,  287;  Proceedings  of 
Massachusetts  Historical  Societ.v,  1869-70,  pnge  311.  See  in  the  Galaxy  for  January, 
1870.  page  124,   Da  Costa's  .Story— a  readable   ai  count  of  the  romance. 

187.  Mrs.   Sigourney's  poenr  is  printed  as  Appendix  IV. 

188.  Hough's   St.   Lawrence  and   Franlclin  counties,   115. 

189.  Poems  of  Places — America,  98. 

190.  Shea's  letter  in  American  Histoiical  Reioid,  Juy  1872,   pagp-  iO>. 

191.  The  journal  was  in  the  Hotel  Dieu,  Quebec,  from  about  1803  until  1842: 
and  in  the  College  of  St.  Mary  in  Montreal  from  1842  until  the  present  time.  Winsor's 
Cartier  to  Frontenae,  247.  The  map  was  found  by  Mr.  Shea  in  the  College  of  St. 
Mary   wlicre  it  was  put  in  1842.     Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  IV,   217. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  167 

idea  of  peopling  these  Occident  shores  with  orient  aborigines  first  had 
birth — whether  with  the  Rev.  Jedediah  ^Nlorse.  D.  D.,i''-  or  with  the 
Rev.  Eleazer  Williams/"^  or  whether  it  had  still  earlier  origin  with  the 
tribes  themselves^'*'* — is  immaterial  here.  Certain  it  is  that  in  1820 
Dr.  Morse^*'"  visited  Mackinaw  and  Green  Bay  at  the  instance  of  the 
Stockbridge  Indians, ^^^  for  the  purpose  of  selecting,  and  negotiating 
for  a  cession  of,  eligible  lands.  The  choice  which  he  made,  and  his 
report^''"  upon  the  condition  of  the  tribes  in  the  west,  were  so  satis- 
factory to  the  Stockbridgcs  that  they  determined  to  enlist  the  co-op- 
eration of  their  friends  and  neighbors,  the  Oneidas.  For  this  purpose 
Dr.  Morse  in  October,  1820,  visited  the  Castle^^s  ^^d  found  not  only 
that  Eleazer  Williams  was  ripe  for  the  removal,  but  that  he  had  already 
taken  a  step  in  that  direction.    That  step  was  his  first  western  trip. 

In  the  preceding  winter  application  had  been  made  to  the  War 
Department  at  Washington  by  persons  purporting  to  be  representa- 
tives of  some  of  the  New  York  Iroquois  tribes,  and  of  the  Stockbridge 
and  St.  Regis  tribes,  for  leave  to  visit^the  Green  Bay  Indians.  The 
secretary  of  war  granted  the  permission,  furnished  delegates  to  the 
number  of  twelve  with  rations  and  ammunition  and  directed  the 
Commissioner  of  Indian  AfTairs  at  Detroit  to  expedite  the  travelers 
with  a  government  vessel  should  one  fit  for  service  be  there  upon 
their  arrival.  The  delegation,  in  which  was  Eleazer  Williams, 
reached  Detroit  July  22,  1820,  in  the  steamboat  IValk-in-the 
water.^^^  But  the  party  proceeded  no  further.  Learning  that  the 
Indian  agent  at  Green  Bay,  Colonel  John  Bowyer,  had  received  from 
the  Menominees  a  cession  of  forty  miles  square  of  their  land  at  Fort 
Howard,  which  was  the  very  land  the  members  of  the  delegation 
coveted,  and  the  purchase  of  which  was  their  real  errand,  they  returned 
home  defeated  and  chagrined.-"^ 

192.  Ellis'   New  York  Indians,   Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   II,   420. 

193.  Ellis'  New  York  Indians,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  II,  421;  Ellis'  Eloazer  Williams. 
Wis.   Hist.   Coll.  VIII,  331. 

194.  Marsh's  Stockbridges,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  IV,  300;  Ellis"  Now  York  Indians. 
II,   416. 

193.  For  a  brief  sketch  of  Dr.  Jlorse  see  Dayidson's  In  Unnamed  Wisconsin,  47. 
He  arrived  in  Green  Bay,  July  7.  1820,  as  see  Davidson,  52:  Neville's  G.ee:i  Bay,  175: 
Ellis'  New  York  Indians,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  II.  417,  note.  Dnrrio  (Orotni  r.ay.  [lajre 
S)  in  writing  1.921,  is  one  year  too  late. 

19G.  The  Stockbridges,  more  properly  caTled  the  llo-he-kuu-iuicks.  witi-  i  mi- 
grant.s  at  an  early  day  from  Massachusetts  to  Oneida  County,  Now  York,  where  the 
Oneidas  coded  to  them  a  slice  from  the  Southern  portion  of  thoir  io>oi-vation.  Ellis' 
New  York  Indians,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  II,  41(>. 

19T.  This  report,  the  most  coniplolo  ami  exhaustive  then  i  v  r  made  on  the  con- 
dition, number,  names,  territory  and  general  affairs  of  the  Indans  was  pnblislod  in 
.Vew  Haven  in  1822,  490  pages,  octavo.     Catalogue  of  United  States  rublicatinns,   H9. 

198.  Ellis'  Elea/.er  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.   Coll.   VIII.  327. 

199.  Detroit  Gazette,   July  28,    1820. 

200.  Ellis'   New   York    In.lians.    Wis.    Hist.    C  11.    II,    423. 


168  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Hence  Eleazer  was  at  the  Castle  to  meet  Dr.  Morse  in  October, 
1820.  But  although  these  two  agreed  in  expediting  an  Indian  hegira, 
they  differed  radically  in  their  motives.  Indeed,  there  were  three 
motives  operating  from  three  different  directions  in  favor  of  removal : 
From  Dr.  Morse  and  the  Stockbridges,  that  the  latter  and  their  com- 
panions might  have  Christian  homes,  free  from  Caucasian  contamina- 
tion; from  Eleazer  Williams,  that  he  might  lead  the  Iroquois  and  their 
allies  to  vast  areas  for  a  grand  imperial  confederacy;  and  from  the 
New  York  Land  Company,  that  its  already  acquired  pre-emption 
right  might  attach  to  the  fertile  lands  of  the  New  York  Indians, 
which  would  happen  as  soon  as  these  should  quit  the  state. -''^  All 
agreeing  in  the  result  to  be  accomplished,  Eleazer  was  easily  the  ally 
of  both.  He  made  the  visit  of  Dr.  Morse  as  pleasant  and  as  profitable 
as  the  inertness  of  the  Oneidas  and  their  unwillingness  to  remove 
would  permit.  Indeed,  he  put  into  their  mouths  an  address  to  Dr. 
Morse  agreeing  to  depart — an  address  which  they  never  made  and 
which  they  repudiated  as  soon  as  they  understood  its  sentiments. -^- 

The  treaty  of  cession  which  Colonel  Bowyer  made  with  the 
Menominees  was  rejected  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States-*^^  and 
therefore  it  was  believed  that  a  second  trip  to  the  west  by  the  New 
York  Indians  might  result  in  their  acquiring  the  longed  for  lands 
about  Fort  Howard.  Consequently  in  the  spring  of  182 1,  Eleazer 
Williams,  aided  by  his  friend  Ellis,  whose  youthful  ardor  had  been 
stirred  by  the  grandeur  of  the  plan  of  Indian  empire  unfolded  to  him. 
began  preparations  for  the  journey.-"* 

A  visit  by  them  to  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Washington  ac- 
complished much.  The  New  York  Land  Company  supplied  them  with 
money;  the  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Prot 
estant  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Missions 
handed  them  cautious  but  efficacious  endorsements  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States  accorded  his  assent  for  a  large  delegation  to 
visit  Green  Bay  under  government  patronage  and  protection.  The 
party  consisted  of  duly  accredited  representatives  from  the  Stock- 
bridges  and  from  the  first  Christian  party  of  the  Oneidas  which  had 
finally  approved  Eleazer's  plan^  Individual  Indians  on  their  own  re- 
sponsibility joined  the  company  from  the  Tuscaroras,  Onondagas  and 
Senecas,  for  these  tribes  as  bodies  had  never  yielded  their  consent  tn 
Eleazer's  earnest  blandishments.     Eleazer  himself  went  as  represent.! 


201.  Davidson's  In  Unnamed  Wisconsin,  55;  Suthei-land's  EiU-l.v  Wisconsin,  Wis. 
Hist.  Coll.  X,  278.  For  some  account  of  the  New  York  L  ird  Comi  aii.\  'o  relations 
witli  tlie  Six  Nations,  see  Seneca  Nation  of  Indiars  i-  Cli'isty,  40  Tin  i  521;  12ii  N.  V. 
122;    162  U.    S.    28.3. 

202.  F:ilis'   Eleazer   Williams,   Wis.   Hist.   Cull.    VIII,   327. 

203.  Ellis'   New  York   Indians,   Wis.    Hist.   Coll.    II,    423. 

204.  Ellis'    Eleazer   Williams.    Wis.    Hst.    Col.    VIII.    ;31.    .'i.-S. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  169 

tive  of  the  St.  Regis  tribe  but  apparently  without  their  author. ty.^oj 
The  delegation  left  Oneida  in  June,  1821,200  and  arrived  July  12, 
1821,  on  the  IValk-in-the-Water  at  Detroit.207  Here  Governor  Cas5 
added  Charles  C.  Trowbridge  to  the  party  to  protect  the  gov.-'-n- 
ment's  interests. -'^•■*  The  Walk-in-the-Water,  with  its  load  of  trav- 
elers, started  for  Mackinaw  July  31,  1821.209  Leaving  Mr.  Ellis  there, 
for  he  was  ill,-io  the  IValk-in-thc-lVater  advanced  towards  Green 
Bay — the  first  steamer  to  plough  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan.-'^ 

The  party  reached  Green  Bay  August  5,  1821,-1-  but  there  was  no 
one  to  meet  them.  Colonel  Bowyer,  the  Indian  agent,  had  died 
the  preceding  winter  and  the  interested  bands  had  not  been  informed 
of  the  projected  visit.  With  difficulty  the  Menominees  and  Winne- 
bagoes  were  brought  into  council.  When  so  brought  they  at  first 
refused  to  negotiate.  Finally,  however,  through  the  influence  of  the 
French  inhabitants  and  traders,  a  reconsideration  was  accomplished 
and  on  August  18,  1821,  a  treaty  was  concluded  by  which  was  ceded 
to  the  New  York  Indians  a  strip  about  four  miles  in  width  crossing 
Fo.K  River  at  right  angles,  with  Little  Chute  as  a  center  and  running 
each  way  equidistant  with  the  grantors'  claim  to  the  country.  The 
price  paid  was  five  hundred  dollars  in  cash  and  fifteen  hundred  dollars 
in  goods  to  be  delivered  the  following  year.-^^ 

If  the  agents  were  satisfied  with  this  treaty  their  principals  and 
others  whom  they  hoped  to  bind  were  not.  All  the  tribes,  except  the 
St.  Regis  band,  took  action  upon  the  return  of  the  delegates.  The 
cession  was  voted  paltry  and  the  motives  of  Eleazer  were  termed  mer- 
cenary if  not  villainous.  The  Oneidas  especially,  including  even  some 
of  the  first  Christian  party,  were  vehement  in  their  action.  They 
forwarded  to  Bishop  Hobart  a  document,  dated  November  21,  1821, 
remonstrating  against  the  scheme  to  rob  them  of  their  homes  and  make 
them  fugitives  and  vagabonds,  cautioning  him  against  recognizing 
Eleazer  as  having  any  authority  to  represent  them  either  civilly  or 
religiously,  and  requesting  the  Bishop  to  withdraw  him  as  their 
religious  teacher.-^* 


205.  Ellis'   Eleazer  Villliams,   Wis.   Ili^^t.  Coll.   VIII,   ii:«,   331:   Wlilttle^^oj's   Itec- 
«ji;«ctions,   Wis.    Hist.   Coll.   1,   6S  note. 

206.  Ellis'   Recollections,  Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   VII,  210. 

207.  Detroit  Gazette,  July  13,  1821. 

208.  Ellis'   Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.   Hist.   Cull.   VIII,  335. 

209.  Baird's  Early  Wisconsin,   Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   II,   94,    note. 

210.  Ellis'    Recollections,   Wis.    Hist.    Coll.    VII,   213. 

211.  Baird's  Early  Wisconsin,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.   II,  94,   and  mitc. 

212.  Durrie's  Green  Bay,   8. 

213.  Martin's  Address,   January  21.    1851,    pajic  3(i,   give-;   tb  ■   (roaty   li   full.      Ii 
va?  approved  by  the  president,  February  19,   1822. 

214.  Davidson's  In   Unnamed  Wisconsin,   04;   Ellis'   Elt^azer  Williams,   Wis.   Hi>t. 
Col;.   VIII,  .330. 


ti)0!^ 


'i    '* 


170  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

But  to  this  document  although  certain  in  its  sound  and  pointed 
in  its  statements  the  Bishop  paid  no  heed.  Moreover,  the  president 
by  a  new  order  permitted  a  third  visit  to  Green  Bay,  in  1822,  for  the 
purpose  of  paying  for  the  former  purchase  and  also  for  attempting  an 
extension  of  the  cession.  Althuogh  the  Iroquois  were  still  in  opposi- 
tion, the  delegation  was  larger  than  before  for  the  Stockbridges  had 
brought  in  the  Brothertowns  and  the  Munsees.-^^  The  party,  Eleazer 
included,  reached  Green  Bay  September  i,  1822.  The  granting  Indians 
assembled  to  receive  their  deferred  payment  and  were  asked  for  an 
enlargement  of  the  grant.  The  Winnebagocs  refused  and  retired. 
The  Menominecs  finally,  after  much  parleying  in  which  Eleazer  urged 
many  plausible  arguments  and  made  many  fulsome  promises,  entered 
into  a  treaty  admitting  the  New  York  Indians  to  an  occupancy  in 
common  with  them  of  all  their  country  without  reserve — a  treaty 
which  related  to  nearly  one-half  the  present  state  of  Wisconsin  and 
which  became  the  source  of  endless  trouble.-^^  With  slight  modifica- 
tion  President  Monroe  gave  liis  approval   March   13,    1823. 

So  Eleazer  Williams,  in  September,  1822.  began  to  reside  in 
Wisconsin.  He  and  the  individual  Oneidas  in  the  delegation  who 
had  continued  loyal  to  him  remained  the  approaching"  winter  ni  Green 
Bay. 

The  next  season  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  Oneidas  of  the 
first  Christian  party  and  as  many  Stockbridges  removed  to  the  new 
possessions.  But  the  implacable  hostility  of  the  Six  Nations  as 
a  whole  continued,  and  although  Oneidas  and  Stockbridges  year  after 
year  dribbled  into  the  new  territory  the  fewness  of  their  numbers  was 
a  disappointment  to  Eleazer  and  a  menace  to  his  ambitions. -^^ 

Eleazer's  first  residence  in  Green  Bay  was  in  the  Indian  Agency 
building  made  vacant  by  Colonel  Bowyer's  death. -^^  In  this  was  a 
large  square  room  suitable  for  school  purposes  and  schools  were 
what  the  ^Nlenominees  desired.  Indeed  education,  although  not  men- 
tioned in  the  treaty  with  them,  was  written  between  its  lines.  The 
Green  Bay  Indians  influenced  by  their  alliances  and  business  dealings 
with  the  resident  French  had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  intelligence 
and  admired  the  learning  of  the  New  York  red  men,  not  a  few  of 
whom  could  read  and  write.      Eleazer,   in  furthering  the   negotiations 


215.  The  Brothertowns  were  associated  remnants  of  various  New  England  tribes. 
The  Stockbridges  sold  them  a  strip  from  their  Southern  holder.  Ellis'  New  York  In- 
dians, Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  II,  416.  The  Mimsres  were  a  branch  of  the  Delawares  scat- 
tered in  consequence  of  having  sided  against  the  colonists  in  the  American  Revolution. 
In  Wisconsin  they  are  united  with  the  Stockbridges.  Davidson's  In  Unname.l  Wis- 
consin,   54. 

216.  Ellis'  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VII,  225;  Ellis'  New  York  Indians, 
Wis.  Hist.  Coll.   II,  428.  The  treaty  in  full  is  in  Martin's  Address,  38. 

217.  Ellis'   New  York  Indians,   Wis.   Hist.  CoH.  II,   430. 
21S.    Davidson's  In   Tnnamed   Wisconsin,   202. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  171 

for  the  treaty  had  kept  the  subject  of  education  foremost  in  his  loljby- 
ing  and  had  promised  profusely  that  if  the  New  York  Indians  secured 
the  foothold  they  sought,  the  "institutions  of  civilization  should  imme- 
diately be  forthcoming.  These  promises  made  a  deep  impression — 
their  non-fulfillment  a  still  deeper  impression.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
although  a  vacant  room  apt  for  school  use  was  under  Eleazer's  roof, 
though  his  friend  Mr.  Ellis  pressed  vigorously  upon  him  his  plighted 
word,  the  ignorance  and  degradation  of  the  untutored  savages  and  the 
expectations  of  the  Eastern  societies  which  had  furthered  the  removal, 
Eleazer  completely  banished  the  subject  from  his  serious  consideration 
and  raised  another  monument  against  himself  in  the  breasts  of  those 
whose  religious  teacher  and  exemplar  he  professed  to  be. 219 

On  March  3,  1823,  Eleazer  Williams  married  Mary  or  Magdalene 
or  Madelaine  Jourdain.-^o  She  was  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Jourdain 
who  about  1798  removed  from  Canada  to  Green  Bay,  and  worked  first 
for  Jacob  Franks  the  blacksmith,  and  later  for  himself.--^.  Afterwards 
he  became  the  blacksmith  of  the  Indian  department  at  the  Bay.--- 
Joseph  married  the  daughter  of  Michael  Gravel  whose  wife  was  the 
daughter  of  a  Menominee  chief.223  All  the  witnesses  represent  the 
wife  of  Eleazer  as  an  attractive  girl, — girl,  literally,  for  she  was  but 
fourteen  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  her  marriage.--*  By  Mr.  Trow- 
bridge she  is  called  a  pretty  but  uneducated  half-breed. -2*5  Mr.  Han- 
son speaks  of  her  as  of  great  personal  attractions,  considerable  accom- 
plishments and  prepossessing  sweetness  of  disposition.--^  Mrs.  Evans 
.--tates  that  "she  was  a  beautiful  and  amiable  girl  whose  father  was 
French  (said  to  be  a  relation  of  Marshal  Jourdain)  and  whose  mother 
was  of  French  and  Indian  extraction. "227  Mr.  Wheelock  informs  me 
that  when  he  was  accustomed  to  see  her  in  and  after  1841  she  was 
a  handsome,  fine  appearing  woman. 228  Jn  addition  to  her  attractions 
of  person  she  owned  between  four  and  five  thousand  acres  of  land  on 


219.  Ellis'  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VIII,  338.  A  school  was  estai  - 
lislied  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Ellis.  See  his  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  VII, 
226.  In  ascribing  educational  initiative  to  Eleazer,  Mr.  Whitford  (Early  History  of 
Education  in  Wisconsin,  and  History  of  School  Supervision,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  V,  327, 
354)  does  not  give  proper  credit.  For  Eleazer's  lou^'ings  on  the  subject  of  the  ''ilu- 
cation  of  his  race,  see  Cotton's  Tour  1,  175. 

220.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   300. 

221.  Grignon's  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  HI,  253. 

222.  Trowbridge's  Eleazer  Williams   Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   VII.   414. 

223.  Grignon's  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.  HI.,  253.  Joseph  Jourdiin  died 
May  21,   18f>6;   his  wife  died  June  13,   18l>5.      Soe  Mrs.   Wil  iains'  Diary. 

224.  Neville's    Green    Bay,    221. 

225.  Trowbridge  Eleazer  William.»,   Wis.   Hist.    Cull..   VII..    411. 
22*.    Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  SCO. 

227.  Evans'   Story  of  Louis  XVII.,  30. 

228.  Personal    inlervicw   May   ISOG,    with    the   author. 


172  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Fox  River  near  Green  Bay.--'-*  To  the  author  of  the  Williams  geneal- 
ogy Eleazer,  in  1846,  mentioned  her  as  "Mary  Hobart  Jourdan.  a  dis- 
tant relative  of  the  king  of  France  from  whom  he  has  been  honored 
with  several  splendid  gifts  and  honors,  among  the  rest  a  golden 
cross  and  star.''""0  In  other  conversation  with  the  same  person 
Eleazer  stated  that  the  prince  de  Joinville  was  a  relative  of  his  wife 
and  that  this  relationship  caused  the  visit,  (to  be  hereinafter  narrated) 
which  that  prince  made  to  Eleazer  in  1841  and  the  gifts  which 
followed  the  visit. ^-'^i  I  make  no  comment  upon  this  story  except  to 
urge  that,  if  the  prince  was  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Williams,  he  was  a 
very  ungallant  young  Frenchman  to  travel  all  the  distance  from  Paris 
to  Green  Bay  and  not  once  tender  his  respects  to  his  beautiful  kins- 
woman. 

Eleazer's  matrimonial  incident  does  not  enhance  respect  for  the 
masculine  participator.  At  the  time  of  the  marriage  he  was  almost 
three  times  the  age  of  the  young  girl;  she  was  then  betrothed  to  a 
worthy  young  trader;  she  was  not  consulted  as  to  her  willingness  to 
marry  Eleazer;  she  was  not  even  allowed  a  woman's  privilege  of  a 
courtship,  but  was  notified  one  morning  that  she  need  not  go  to 
school  that  day  as  she  was  to  be  married  that  evening  to  "Priest 
Williams."  One  authority  finds  in  these  unchivalrous  proceedings  an 
evidence  that  the  bridegroom  was  not  a  high-Dorn  Frenchmen. -2- 

Mrs.  Williams  had  three  children — two  of  them  daughters.  These 
last  died  in  infancy,  one  about  October  15,  1841.-3-^  The  son  John, 
born  about  1825,-34  ^^yag  jn  1867  the  captain  of  a  steamboat  on  Lake 
Winnebago. -2^  He  died  in  1884  from  injuries  received  in  his  busi- 
ness.-^°  Eleazer  Williams  told  the  genealogist  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams 
in  1846  that  his  son,  the  said  John,  was  then  upon  a  visit  to  the  king 
of  France  at  the  latter's  request.^^'^  One  can  imagine  the  glee  of  the 
cunning  Indian  as  he  solemnly  doled  out  his  morsels  of  unmitigated 
fiction  to  auditors  who  relying  upon  his  clerical  profession  implicitly 
believed  all  his  lies. 

Descendants   of  John   Williams   are   now,   it   is    said,    residents   of 

229.  Hanson's  Tho  Lost  Priuee,  300;  Evaus'  Story  of  Ix)uis  XVII.,  30;  JlcCall's 
Journal,  Wis.   Hist.   Coll.,   XII.,   185. 

230.  Williams'    Williams    Family,    96. 

231.  Williams'  Redeemed  Captive,  177. 

232.  Draper's  Additional  Notes,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VIII.,  367;  Neville's  Green 
Bay,  221.  A  view  of  tlie  house  where  the  wedding  took  pluce  is  at  page  213  of  1he 
latter  book.  See  also  Baird's  Indian  Customs,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  IX.,  321.  Some 
account  of  the  wedding  is  in  Ellis'  Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VII.,  227. 

233.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   372. 

234.  Register,   XIII.,  95. 

235.  Allibone's  Dictionary  of  Authors,   III.,   2738. 

236.  Green  Bay  Gazette,  July,  1886. 

237.  Williams'   Williams  Family,  96. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  17:$ 

Oshkosh,  Wisconsin.  Mrs.  Williams,  the  widow  of  Eleazer,  was  in 
1874  living  alone  in  a  desolate  looking  cabin  near  Green  Bay,  its 
only  embellishments  a  few  simple  articles  of  bead  or  porcupine  em- 
broidery, and  a  well-executed  life-size  portrait  in  oil  of  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams, on  either  side  of  which  were  suspended  exquisitely  finished  en- 
gravings of  Louis  XVI.  of  France  and  Marie  Antoinette. 2='^  Mrs. 
Williams  adopted  her  husband's  diary  habit.  From  one  of  her 
journals  penned  when  well  along  in  years  it  appears  that  she  took 
interest  in  her  farm,  produce  and  livestock  and  in  the  domestic  affairs 
of  her  relatives  and  neighbors.  She  died  in  her  cabin  home,  which 
was  in  the  town  of  Lawrence  in  Brown  County,  July  21,   iSSo.-^^ 

Resuming  the  chronological  narrative:  In  1824,  the  next  year 
after  Eleazer's  marriage,  he  was  licensed  to  perform  the  marriage 
ceremony  for  others — at  that  time  a  civil  service.-^*'  At  about  the 
same  period  he  began  to  preach  in  Green  Bay,  using  the  much  mod- 
ernized discourses  of  his  Deerfield  great  ancestor.-*^  In  the  fall  of 
1825  he  took  his  young  wife  to  New  York,  where  Bishop  Hobart 
baptized  and  confirmed  her,  giving  her  his  sirname  for  her  middle 
name.  Her  christianization  "excited  almost  as  vivid  a  sensation  in 
the  fashionable  world  as  had  that  of  Pocahontas  in  English  society 
two  centuries  before."-^-  In  the  spring  of  1826  at  Oneida  Eleazer  was 
ordained  as  a  deacon  by  Bishop  Hobart,  but  he  never  attained  any 
higher  ecclesiastical  rank.^*^  Returning  to  Green  Bay  he  preached 
at  the  Post  school-house-^*  and  in  his  flowing  robe  did  service  in  the 
episcopalian  form.-*'' 

But  he  was  not  so  occupied  with  religious  affairs  as  to  forget 
that  grand  earthly  empire  that  he  would  fain  establish.  And  yet  the 
establishing  was  very  slow.  The  New  York  Indians  came  in  but 
scant  numbers  and  the  Indians  already  settled,  disaffected  by  his 
broken  promises  and  his  want  of  earnestness  for  their  spiritual  wel- 
fare, withdrew  their  confidence.  The  Domestic  and  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society  trusted  him  no  longer.  Finally  in  1827  the  Menom- 
inees,  the  tribe  which  had  opened  its  lands  to  the  New  York  Indians, 
showed  its  opposition  to  him  by  its  attitude  towards  them.  This  was 
at  the  treaty  of  Butte  des  Morts,  concluded  August  11,  1827,2*8  be- 

238.  Martla's  Uncrowned   Hapsburg,  87. 

239.  Green  Hay  Gazette,  July,  188G;  O'Brleu's  Account  of  EUazor  Williams,  in 
Ctiicago  Times,    September  18,   1886. 

240.  Durrie's  Green   Bay,   9. 

241.  Ellis'   Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.    Hist.   Coll.,   VIII,   321. 

242.  Martin's  Uncrowned   Hapsbuig,  92;     Neville's  Green  Bay,   222. 

243.  Davidson's  In  Unnamed  Wisconsin,  65;  Letter  of  Mrs.  Evans  in  Green  Bay 
Gazette,  July,  1895;    Miss  Martin's  Reply,  Green  Bay  Gazette,  July  28,  1895. 

244.  Ellis'   Recollections,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VII.,  237. 

245.  McCall's  Journal,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  XII.,   190. 
24li.     McCall's  Journal,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll..   XII..   172. 


174  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

tween  the  Menominees  and  the  government.  By  this  instrument  but 
little  regard  was  paid  to  any  rights  formerly  given  to  the  eastern 
Indians.  If  ill  faith  be  imputed  to  the  contracting  parties  there  is 
much  justification  alleged.  The  arrivals  from  New  York  had  been  so 
few  that  it  was  not  fair  to  the  rapidly  growing  west  to  concede  to 
those  few  an  imperial  territory.  Moreover,  it  was  notorious  that  few 
if  any  more  were  expected  to  migrate.  It  was  poor  policy  to  yield 
up  in  perpetuity  to  a  few  Oneidas,  Stockbridges,  Brothertowns,  Mun- 
sees,  a  parcel  of  country  equal  to  about  one-half  of  the  present  state 
of  Wisconsin.-^" 

In  1829  Colonel  Samuel  C.  Stambaugh  of  Pennsylvania  became 
Indian  agent  at  Green  Bay.  His  advice  to  the  Menominees  was 
along  the  line  of  the  Butte  des  Morts  treaty — to  ignore  the  New  York 
Indians  and  sell  land  to  the  government2*8 — advice  which  established 
him  in  the  high  regard  of  the  Menominees  and  in  the  low  esteem  of 
Eleazer  who  saw  in  the  acceptance  of  this  advice  the  death  of  his  am- 
bitious hopes. 

In  1830  commissioners  appointed  by  the  president  under  authority 
actually  granted  by,  or  plainly  inferable  from,  the  treaty  of  Butte  des 
Morts  appeared  at  the  Bay,  to  localize,  to  establish  boundaries  for, 
the  New  York  tribes  which,  under  the  treaty  of  1822,  were  in  the 
reservations  of  the  Menominees.  At  the  conference  held  with  these 
commissioners  Eleazer  Williams  appeared  as  the  representative  of 
the  St.  Regis  Indians,-*''  not  one  of  whom,  so  far  as  I  can  learn, 
had  yet  arrived  at  Green  Bay  as  a  settler.  The  commissioners  accom- 
plished nothing — the  Menominees,  Oshkosh  at  their  head,  refused  any 
agreement  by  which  the  New  York  Indians  were  to  have  separate 
localization.  Indeed,  Oshkosh  denied  that  they  had  any  claims  at 
all,  yet  as  these  Indians  were  on  the  ground  they  could  be  considered 
as  tenants  at  will  during  good  behavior  but  not  as  owners  or  con- 
trollers of  the  soil.-^** 

This  was  Colonel  Stambaugh's  opportunity.  Accompanied  by  a 
dozen  or  more  Menominees  he  started  November  8,  1830,  for  Wash- 
ington. Upon  reaching  Detroit  Mr,  and  Mrs.  Williams,  who  had 
followed  the  party  from  Green  Bay,  were  ofificially  attached  to  it  by 
Governor  Cass,  although  Eleazer  and  the  other  New  York  Indians 
were  opposed  to  the  object  of  the  errand. ^si  The  Menominees  suc- 
ceeded in  effecting  a  cession  to  the  government  of  more  than  one-half 


247.  Ellis'  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VIII..  341.  Eleazer  Williams' 
views  of  the  wrongs  done  to  the  New  York  Indians  will  be  found  in  Coltnn's  Tour,  I., 
175  et  seq. 

248.  Ellis'  New  Yorlj  Indians,  Wis.   Hist.  Coll.,  II.,  432. 

249.  McCall's  Journal,    Wis.   Hist.   Coll  ,  XII.,   192. 

250.  Ellis'  New  York  Indians,  Wis.   Hist.  Coll.,  II.,  432. 

2.51.     Carpenter's  Sketchi  of  Daniel  Bread,  Wis.   Hist.   Coll.,   III.,  56. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  175 

i)f  their  possessions  west  of  Lake  Michigan,  ignoring  almost  wholly 
the  rights  which  about  eight  years  before  they  had  solemnly  conferred 
upon  their  eastern  brethren.  This,  the  Stambaugh  treaty,--"'-  dated 
February  8,  1831,  was  not  confirmed  by  the  senate  exactly  as  made, 
for  the  New  York  senators  proposed  to  be  just  to  the  emigrants  from 
that  state  to  the  western  territory.  The  details  of  much  negotiation 
and  much  heart-burning  are  not  pertinent  here.  Sufifice  it  to  say 
that  when  the  vexed  land  question  was  finally  settled  the  Stockbridges, 
Munsees  and  Brothertowns  were  restricted  to  a  parcel,  eight  miles 
by  twelve,  on  the  eastern  shores  of  Lake  Wmnebago,  while  the  Onei- 
das  and  other  scattered  Six  Nations  were  settled  at  Duck  Creek  west 
of  Fox  River  on  a  tract  about  twelve  miles  square.  The  senate  ratified 
this  arrangement  May  17,  1838.-''" 

This  was  the  end  of  the  scheme  of  ambition  and  temporal  sov- 
ereignty which  for  almost  a  score  of  years  Eleazer  Williams  had 
nourished  and  fostered.  The  dusky  empire  had  disintegrated,  the 
different  bands  discordant  and  hostile  had  been  confined  in  narrow 
paddocks,  the  tide  of  white  civilization  was  rushing  in.  No  longer 
a  public  character  Eleazer  had  withdrawn  from  Green  Bay  and  was 
residing  upon  his  wife's  estate  at  Little  Kaukaulin,  there  to  remain 
in  humble  obscurity  until  a  wilder  dream  for  wider  empire  should 
arouse  his  dormant  hopes. 

Eleazer  had  become  not  only  dethroned  but  discredited.  For 
quite  a  period  he  had  been  chaplain  of  the  Oneidas  settled  at  Duck 
Creek,  upon  an  annual  salary  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.-^* 
Yet  he  constantly  neglected  his  flock.  More  than  this,  he  forbade  the 
Oneidas  to  receive  the  evangelizations  of  pastors  of  other  denomina- 
tions.-^^  Weary  of  neglect,  still  wearier  of  him,  the  Oneidas  held  a 
council  in  February,  1832,  to  which  the  Indian  agent,  Colonel  George 
Boyd, -5*^  was  summoned  and  to  which  he  invited  some  citizens  of 
Green  Bay.  These  Oneidas  were  chietiy  of  the  First  Christian  party, 
whom  Eleazer  had  bound  to  himself  a  dozen  years  before,  in  the  first 
days  of  his  ministrations,  before  the  cares  of  this  world  and  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  riches  had  made  him  unfit  to  be  their  pastor.  The  assembled 
Indians  after  rehearsing  their  grievances  against  Eleazer  concluded 
with  an  address  to  the  agent,  stating  that  they  had  invited  him  to 
assist  them  in  making  a  final  separation  from  Eleazer  and  dismissing 


252.  Ellis'  New  York  Indians,  Wis.  Hist.   Coll.,  II.,  433  gives  extracts  from  tlie 
Stambaugh  treaty. 

253.  Ellis'    New   York    Indians,    Wis.   Hist.    Coll.,    II.,    445,    448;     Ellis'    Eleazer 
Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VIII.,  343. 

254.  McCall's  .Tournal,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  XII.,  1S5. 

255.  Davidson's  In   Unnamed  Wisconsin,   122. 

2o6.    Colonel  Stambaugh's  appointment  as  an  Indinn  Agent  was  refused  cunfirma- 
ti<in  anil  Colonel  Boyd  was  appointed  in  his  room. 


176  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

him  entirely.  They  expressed  their  desire  to  repudiate  him  sum- 
marily, to  warn  the  government  of  the  United  States,  the  state  of  New- 
York  and  all  church  and  missionary  societies  against  recognizing  his 
authority  to  act  for  them,  to  speak  in  their  name,  or  in  any  possible 
way  to  meddle  in  their  afifairs.  They  requested  Colonel  Boyd  to  draft 
in  triplicate  an  instrument  to  be  signed  by  them  and  witnessed  by  him 
and  by  his  invited  guests,  setting  forth  distinctly  and  plainly  their 
protestations — one  for  the  secretary  of  war,  another  for  the  governor 
of  New  York,  the  third  for  the  proper  authorities  of  the  Episcopal 
church.  These  documents  were  drafted  and  signed  and  committed 
to  the  agent  for  delivery — an  action  which  while  perhaps  neither 
technical,  oiBcial  nor  ecclesiastical,  fully  justified  the  authors  of  His- 
toric Green  Bay  in  writing  of  Eleazer  Williams  as  a  "disowned  clergy- 
man of  the  Episcopal  church,"-^"  notwithstanding  the  assertion  con- 
cerning him  of  Dr.  Hawks  on  January  i,  1853,  "He  is  in  good  standing 
as  a  clergyman  and  is  deemed  a  man  of  truth  among  his  acquaintance 
and  those  with  whom  he  has  longest  lived. "^^s 

Exactly  what  his  standing  was  in  and  about  Green  Bay,  let  Mr. 
John  Y.  Smith  witness,  who  knew  him  intimately  from  1828  until 
1837:259 

He  was  a  fat,  lazy,  good-for-nothing  Indian;  but  cunning,260  crafty,  fiuitful  in 
expedients  to  raise  fclie  wind  and  unscrupulous  about  the  means  of  accomplishing  It. 
During  the  last  four  or  five  years  of  my  acquaintance  with  him,  I  doubt  whether 
there  was  a  man  at  Green  Bay  whose  word  commanded  less  confidimce  than  that  of 
Eleazer  Williams.  His  character  for  dishonesty,  tricliery  and  falsehood  .liecame  so 
notorious  and  scandalous  that  respectable  Episcopalians  preferred  charges  against  him 
to  Bishop  Onderdonlv.261  But  as  Mr.  Williams  was  located  in  tlie  dinccse  of  Wis- 
consin under  Bishop  Kemper,  the  bishop  of  New  Yorlj  disclaimed  jurisdiition  of  the 
case;  and,  as  Williams  was  there  under  a  commission  from  a  society  in  New  Yorlv, 
Bishop  Kemper  disclaimed  jurisdiction  of  the  case,  and  In  consequence  of  tlie-e 
counter-disclaimers    the   charges    were   never   investigated. 202 


257.  Neville's  Green  Bay,  222.  Ellis'  E'eazer  Williams,  Wis.  Mist.  Coll.  VIH 
344. 

258.  Dr.  Hawlvs'  Introduction  to  Have  We  a  Bourbon  Among  Us?— Putnam'.-; 
I.,   194. 

259.  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VI.,  330. 

260.  Cunning  is  ascribed  to  Eleazer  in  one  of  the  earliest  characterizations  <if 
him  as  an  adult  which  I  have  seen — in  August,  1830.  See  McCall's  Journal,  Wis.  Hist. 
Coll.,  XII.,  185. 

261.  Bishop  Hobart  had  died  September  32,  1830;  Benjamin  T.  Onderdonk  suc- 
ceeded him  as  bishop  of  New  Yorls,  November  26,  1830.  The  Rev.  Jackson  Kemper 
became  in  1835  missionary  bishop  of  Missouri  and  Indiana  with  jurisdiction  through- 
out the  Northwest.  In  1859  this  jurisdiction  was  limited  by  liis  accepting  tlie  bishop- 
ric of  Wisconsin.  Morehouse's  Some  American  Churchmen,  110,  117.  As  to  the  imwil- 
lingness  of  either  Bishop  Onderdonk  or  Bishop  Kemper  to  be  responsible  for  Eleazer 
Williams,  see  Hanson's  Have  We  a  Bourbon  Among  Us? — Putnam's,  I.,  200. 

262.  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VI.,  332.  John  Y.  Smith  was 
born   in   New    York    State   February   10,    1807.      He   was   a    man  of   great    strength    of 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  177 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  perpetuate  these  charcterizations,  to  recall 
these  misconducts  of  one  long  dead  and  as  to  whom  I  would  fain 
apply  the  direction,  Nil  nisi  bouuin  de  morttiis.  But  the  truth  of 
history  is  involved  and  the  claims  for  Eleazer  Williams  depend  largely 
upon  his  personal  statements.  Candor,  therefore,  compels  me  to  say — 
and  these  pages  ill  perform  their  mission  if  they  fail  to  prove — that 
obstinate  persisting  to  act  a  false  part  was  exactly  suitable  to  Eleazer 
Williams'  character,-**^  that  he  abounded  in  sly  cunning,  was  prone 
to  tricks,  apt  to  exaggerate,  quick  to  invent,  utterly  untruthful. 

And  yet,  I  am  glad  to  parallel  these  criticisms,  with  the  justifica- 
tions which  Judge  Morgan  L.  ^Martin  with  charcteristic  clemency  has 
uttered  in  favor  of  Eleazer  Williams: 

A  mail  roared  amid  savage  surroxmdings.  as  lie  was,  s.  ou'.d  be  judged  by  a 
differeut  standard  tban  we  set  up  for  oue  who  lias  spent  his  life  entirely  amoni; 
white  peoijle.  No  one  can  from  childhood  fraternize  with  Indians  without  absorbing 
their  characteristics  to  some  extent, — and  becoming  vain,  deceitful  and  boa'-tful.  He 
was  a  I'emarkable  mad  in  many  respects,  but  was  deeply  imbued  with  false  notions 
of  life,  and  his  career  was  a  failure.  He  was  neither  better  nor  worse  than  his 
life-long  companions  and  was  what  might  have  been  expected  from  one  wlio  had 
been  sent  into  the  world  with  certain  racial  vices  and  whose  training  and  associations 
were   not  calculated   to   better  him-.26-t 

Notwithstanding  Eleazer's  permanent  residence  in  Wisconsn  he 
did  not  sever  his  connection  with  his  eastern  kin.  In  1835  he  was  at 
St.  Regis  endeavoring  to  obtain  long  delayed  justice  from  the  govern- 
ment for  his  father's  services  in  the  war  of  1812.-''"'  Three  years  later 
he  was  again  in  New  York  and  visited  in  Buffalo ;-66  in  1841  while 
once  more  in  the  same  state  incidents  occurred  which  demand  atten- 
tion. 

In  August  of  that  year  ho  celebrated  with  the  Oneida  Indians  at 
the  Castle  the  eighth  triennial  anniversary  of  the  conversion  of  six 
hundred  pagans  of  that  tribe  to  the  Christian  faith.  His  part  in  the 
commemoration  of  an  event  with  which  in  1817  he  was  personally  con- 
nected consisted  in  the  delivery  of  two  homilies  entitled  The  salva- 
tion of  sinners  through  riches  of  divine  grace.'-'''  After  p?.riicipating 
in  the  celebration  Eleazer  Williams  proceeded  to  St.  Regis.  There 
he  was  abiding  in  October,  1841,  when  the  prince  de  Joinvi'le  then  in 
America  was   about  starting  upon   his   tour  to  the    Mississippi. 

The  prince  de  Joinville  was  the  third  son  of  Louis'  Philippe,  then 

character,  thon.iigli  inulity  .iiid  litciary  culture.  His  statements  may  lie  accepted 
without  iiufstii.n.  He  died  .May  .'..  1S74.  Wight's  Tlu;  Old  White  Chnrc]),  II:  Dnrrio's 
John  Y.    Smith,   Wis.   Hist.    Coll.,  VII.,   452. 

263.  Ram  ou  Facts,   435,   uses  this  clause  witli  reffroncf  ti)  Arrold   du  Tilh. 

264.  Martin's  Narative,   Wis.    Hist.   ro:i.,    XI.,   390. 

265.  Report,  January  16,  1857,  on  claim  of  Mary  Ann  Willian  s,  IIi  use  Com- 
mittee ou  Military  Affairs,   34th  Congres-i,   Third   Session,   No.   83. 

266.  Uohert.son'a  Last  of  the  Bourbon  story.  OH. 

267.  These  homilies  were  publislicd  nt  Green   B^iy  in   1812. 


178  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

king  of  the  French,  and  was  born  August  14,  1818.-^*  In  1840  he  com- 
manded the  vessel  which  brought  from  St.  Helena  the  bones  of  the 
great  emperor — that  mistake  of  policy  fatal  to  the  house  of  Orleans — , 
and  in  1841  was  traveling  in  Canada  and  in  the  United  States.  He 
desired  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  history  of  those  two  countries 
especially  in  relation  to  the  French  occupation  of  the  former  country. 
Besides  as  he  states  in  his  Memoirs,  "I  was  anxious  to  go,  via  the 
Great  lakes  to  Green  Bay  on  Lake  Michigan,  and  then  starting  from 
Mackinaw,  the  old  Indian  Michillimackinac,  to  follow  up  the  track  of 
our  officers  and  soldiers  and  missionaries  who  pushed  on  till  they 
discovered  the  Mississippi. "-^^  The  prince  leaving  his  large  party  at 
Albany,  New  York,  selected  a  few  friends  to  make  this  trip  with  hmi, 
they  thus  traversing  the  route  which  the  prince's  father,  Louis  Philippe, 
had  taken  when  an  exile  in  America."^**  It  may  well  be  believed  that 
upon  the  beginning  of  his  trip  the  prince  sought  the  name  and  address 
of  some  person  resident  among  the  western  Indians,  ripe  in  years 
and  ready  with  reminiscences,  with  whom  he  could  converse. -"^  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  upon  boarding  the  Columbus  for  his  tour  around  the 
lakes  he  avowed  to  Captain  Shook  his  errand  and  coupled  with  the 
information  an  earnest  request  that  the  captain  would  direct  him  to 
some  aged  person  residing  along  his  route  who  might  possibly  have 
personal  recollection  of  his  father's  trip,  or,  such  failing,  some  person 
of  a  younger  generation  who  might  know  of  it  by  hearsay.  The  cap- 
tain whose  vessel  plied  regularly  between  the  ports  along  the  lakes 
knew  Eleazer  and  mentioned  his  name  to  the  prince. -"- 

Meanwhile  Eleazer  Williams  had  learned  at  St.  Regis  of  the 
prince's  contemplated  journey.  Of  his  desire  for  an  expert  in  Indian 
habits,  one  familiar  with  Indian  history,  one  who  mayhap  knew  his 
father,  Eleazer  also  learned,  perhaps  by  letter  from  friends  in  New 
York,  for  his  reputation  as  a  scholar  in  Indian  affairs  was  a  score  of 
years  old,  perhaps  not  until  he  reached  Mackinaw.  However  this 
may  be,  alert  for  exciting  episodes,  he  hurriedly  quit  St.  Regis  and 
journeying  in  haste,  anticipated  the  prince  and  his  retinue  and  was 
standing  on  the  wharf  at  Mackinaw  when  the  Columbus  reached  that 
port  October  18,   i84i.2"3 

I    summarize    from    The    Lost    Prince    the    account    of    what    then 


268.  Priuoe   de  .Toiiiville's   Memoir.s,   1. 

269.  Prince  de  Joinville'.s  Memoirs,  207. 

270.  Martin's   Uncrowned   Hapsburg,   87. 

271.  Robertson's  Last  of  the  Bourbon   Story,   Putnam's,    II.   u.    s.,    95. 

272.  Martin's  Uncrowned  Hapsburg,   87. 

273.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  370.  I  am  inclined  to  disliust  this  date  as  a 
few  days  too  early,  but  cannot  yet  prove  it  wrong.  But  it  is  certi;i  Iv  nor'  (orr  cr 
than  the  year  1854,  given  in  Harper's  Book  of  Facts,  033,  as  the  tim"  of  thf  P. iniCs 
Tisit  to  Green  Bay. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  179 

transpired,  as  ^Iv.  Hanson  secured  the  information  in  conversation 
with  Eleazer  Williams  on  December  7,  1852,  and  as  contained  in 
journals  which  somewhat  later  he  produced  for  the  inspection  of  Mr. 
Hanson;-"-' 

While  Eleazer  was  standing  on  the  wharf  and  the  prince  and 
companions  having  gone  ashore  were  viewing  the  sights,  John  Shook, 
the  captain  of  the  vessel,  approaching  Eleazer  asked  him  if 
he  were  not  going  on  to  Green  Bay,  for  the  prince  de 
Joinvillc  had  1)een  making  inquiries  for  a  Mr.  Williams,  and  he. 
Captain  Shook,  had  told  the  prince  that  such  a  man  lived 
at  Green  Bay.  Consequently,  when  the  prince  re-boarded  the  ship, 
Eleazer  took  passage.  As  the  vessel  proceeded.  Captain  Shook  told 
the  prince  that  Eleazer  was  on  beard  and  he  brought  the  two  to 
an  acquaintance.  Quoting  Eleazer's  Journal:  "I  was  siltng  at  the 
time  on  a  barrel.  The  prince  not  only  started  with  evident  and  invol- 
untary surprise  when  he  saw  me  but  there  was  a  great  agitation  in  his 
face  and  manner — a  slight  paleness  and  a  quivering  of  the  lip — which  I 
could  not  help  remarking  at  the  time,  but  which  struck  me  more 
forcibly  afterwards,  in  connection  with  the  whole  train  of  circum- 
stances, and  by  contrast  with  his  usual  self-possessed  manner.  Ho 
then  shook  me  earnestly  and  respectfully  by  the  hand  and  drew  me 
immediately  into  conversation."  After  the  dinner  which  Eleazer  po- 
litely declined  to  eat  at  the  same  private  table  with  the  prince  and  his 
suite,  conversation  passed  between  them  on  early  French  settlements 
in  America  and  on  the  much  lamented  loss  of  Canada  to  France. 
Until  late  in  the  night,  all  the  next  morning  and  until  three  in  the 
afternoon,  when  the  vessel  reached  Green  Bay,  they  talked  together. 
Upon  landing  the  prince  went  to  the  Astor  House  and  stating 
that  he  must  leave  the  next  day  or  the  day  following,  begged  Eleazer 
to  take  up  his  quarters  at  the  hotel.  But  Eleazer  preferred  to  go  to 
the  home  of  his  father-in-law  and  returned  in  the  evening  to  the 
prince.  The  latter  made  himself  alone  by  dismissing  an  attendant 
although  the  carousing  of  his  suite  could  be  heard  in  an  adjoining 
room.  The  prince  then  stated  that  "he  had  a  communication  to 
make  to  me  of  a  very  serious  nature  as  concerned  himself  and  of  the 
last  importance  to  me — that  it  was  one  in  which  no  others  were  in- 
terested, and  therefore  before  proceeding  further,  he  wished  to  obtain 
some  pledge  of  secrecy,  some  promise  that  I  would  not  reveal  to  any 
one  what  he  was  going  to  say."  Naturally  Eleazer  denuirred,  but 
finally  pledged  his  honor  not  to  reveal  what  the  prince  was  going 
to  say.  provided  there  was  nothing  in  it  prejudicial  to  anyone,  and  he 
signed  a  promise  to  that  efTect.  "It  was  vague  and  general,  for  T 
would   not   tie   myself   down    to   absolute    secrecy  but   left   the   matter 


274.     Hanson's  Tlie  L<3st  Prince,   356,  304. 


180  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

conditional."  The  prince  then  told  Eleazer  that  he,  the  latter,  was 
of  foreign  descent,  was  born  in  Europe  and  was  the  son  of  a  king. 
He  added,  "You  have  suffered  a  great  deal,  and  have  been  brought 
very  low,  but  you  have  not  suffered  more,  or  been  more  degraded 
than  my  father,  who  was  long  in  exile  and  poverty  in  this  country; 
but  there  is  this  difference  between  him  and  you,  that  he  was  all  along 
aware  of  his  high  birth,  whereas  you  have  been  spared  the  knowledge 
of  your  origin."'  The  narrative  proceeds:  "When  the  prince  had 
said  this  I  was  much  overcome  and  thrown  into  a  state  of  mind  which 
you  can  easily  imagine.  In  fact  I  hardly  knew  what  to  do  or  say,  and 
my  feelings  were  so  much  excited  that  I  was  like  one  in  a  dream 
and  much  was  said  between  us  of  which  I  can  give  but  an  indistinct 
account.  However,  I  remember  I  told  him  his  communication  was 
so  startling  and  unexpected,  that  he  must  forgive  me  for  being  in- 
credulous, and  that  really  I  was  'between  two.'  'What  do  you  mean,' 
he  said,  'by  being  "between  two"?'  I  replied  that  on  the  one  hand  it 
scarcely  seemed  to  me  he  could  believe  what  he  said,  and  on  the 
other  I  feared  he  might  be  under  some  mistake  as  to  the  person."' 
The  prince  disclaimed  any  intention  to  trifle  with  Eleazer"s  feelings 
and  stated  that  he  had  ample  proof  of  his  identity.  Before  granting 
Eleazer's  request  that  he  would  proceed  with  his  disclosure  the  prince 
produced  from  his  trunk  a  parchment  and  a  "governmental  seal  of 
France,  the  one  if  I  mistake  not,  used  under  the  old  monarchy." 
Eleazer  relates  that  as  soon  as  he  knew  the  whole  story,  "the  sight 
of. the  seal  put  before  me  by  a  member  of  the  family  of  Orleans  stirred 
my  indignation."  The  parchment  was  very  handsomely  written  in 
double  parallel  columns  of  French  and  English.  "I  continued  intently 
reading  and  considering  it  for  a  space  of  four  or  five  hours  ...  it 
was  a  solemn  abdication  of  the  crown  of  France  in  favor  of  Louis 
Philippe  by  Charles  Louis  who  was  styled  Louis  XVH.,  king  of 
France  and  Navarre  with  all  accompanying  names  and  titles  of 
honor,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  old  French  monarchy."  As  a 
return  for  this  sacrifice,  Eleazer  was  to  receive  a  princely  establishment 
either  in  France  or  in  America  and  the  restoration  of  all  the  private 
property  of  the  royal  fam.lly,  or  its  equivalent,  confiscated  by  the  French 
Revolution  or  in  any  other  way.  After  much  reflection  Eleazer  in- 
formed the  Prince  that  he  could  not  barter  away  the  rights  pertaining 
to  him  by  his  birth  and  sacrifice  the  interests  of  his  family  and  that 
he  could  give  the  prince  only  the  answer  which  de  Provence  gave  to 
the  ambassador  of  Napoleon  at  Warsaw.  "Though  I  am  in  poverty 
and  exile  I  will  not  sacrifice  my  honor."  "The  prince  upon  this 
assumed  a  loud  tone  and  accused  me  of  ingratitude  in  trampling  on 
the  overtures  of  the  king,  his  father,  who,  he  said,  was  actuated  in 
making  the  propositL-n,  more  by  feelings  of  kindness  and  pity  towards 
me  than   by  any   other   consideration,    since   his   claim   to   the   French 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  181 

throne  rested  on  an  entirely  different  basis  to  mine,  viz.,  not  that  of 
hereditary  descent,  but  of  popular  election.  When  he  spoke  in  this 
strain  I  spoke  loud  also,  and  said,  that  as  he,  by  his  disclosure,  had 
put  me  in  the  position  of  a  superior,  I  must  assume  that  position,  and 
frankly  say  that  my  indignation  was  stirred  by  the  memory  that  one  of 
the  family  of  Orleans  had  imbrued  his  hands  in  my  father's  blood-"^ 
and  that  another  now  wished  to  obtain  from  me  an  abdication  of  the 
throne.  When  I  spOke  of  superiority,  the  Prince  immediately  assumed 
a  respectful  attitude  and  remained  silent  for  several  minutes.  It  had 
now  grown  very  late  and  we  parted  with  a  request  from  him  that  I 
would  reconsider  the  proposal  of  his  father,  and  not  be  too  hasty  in 
my  decision.  I  returned  to  my  father-in-law's,  and  the  next  day  saw 
the  prince  again  and  on  his  renewal  of  the  subject  gave  him  a  similar 
answer."  Before  he  went  awaj'  the  Frenchman  said  "Though  we  part 
I  hope  we  part  friends."  Upon  whatever  terms  they  parted  they  never 
met  again.  . 

Now  around  this  narrative  as  a  center  divers  observations  cluster: 

I.  It  seems  remarkable  that  if  the  object  of  the  prince  in  coming 
to  America  was  to  obtain  this  renunciation,  he  should  go  more  than  a 
thousand  miles  from  his  vessel  to  secure  it.  Eleazer  Williams  was  in 
the  East  and  the  place  of  his  sojourn  was  accessible,  and  it  seems 
ludicrous  that  .for  a  purpose  so  weighty  the  prince  and  the  priest 
should  race  across  one-third  of  the  span  of  the  continent  to  meet  in  a 
tavern  in  Green  Bay. 

II.  This  astounding  fact  of  Eleazer's  history,  making  as  it  did 
if  true  his  wife  the  blood  queen  of  France  and  his  son  the  dauphin, 
he  never  revealed  to  his  wife  and  son.  Twelve  years  after  the  prince 
visited  Green  Bay,  when  the  story  of  this  claimed  disclosure  had  for 
a  long  while  been  public  property,  a  friend  of  Mrs.  Williams  who  had 
read  in  Putnam's,  Have  We  a  Bourbon  Among  Us?  and  The  Bour- 
bon Question,  related  the  story  to  her.-^^  At  this  time,  in  1853. 
Eleazer  had  finally  abandoned  Green  Bay  and  never  saw  his  family 
again  to  explain  his  prolonged  silence  upon  a  fact  so  momentous. 
But  one  can  imagine  ?ilrs.  Williams  reflecting  upon  her  husband's 
half-formed  Frepch  speech  and  the  many  other  evidences  she  must 
have  possessed  of  his  Indian  origin,  and  deciding  that  his  silence  to 
her  was  another  evidence  of  his  astuteness.  Notwithstanding  the  ig- 
norance of  his  wife  and  son  until  1853,  Eleazer  stated  to  Mr.  Hanson 
in  185 1,  "I  am  convinced  of  my  royal  descent;  so  are  my  family.  The 
idea  of  royalty  is  in  our  minds  and  we  will  never  relinquish  it."-^^. 
»■ 

273.  Referring  to  the  Duke  of  Orleacs,  father  of  Louis  Philippe,  who  voted  for 
the  death  of  Louis  XVI.     Lamartine'3  Girondists,  II.,  330. 

27G.  Draper's  Additional  Notes.  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VIII.,  367;  O'Brien's  The 
Mystery  of  His  Life,  in  Yenowine's  News,  September  19,  1S86. 

277.    Hanson's  The  Ivist  Prince.  346. 


182  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

III.  The  most  natural  action  for  one  whose  affiliation  has  been 
attacked,  whose  beliefs  as  to  his  paternity  and  maternity  have  been 
rudely  jostled,  is  to  consult  forthwith  the  persons  he  had  supposed 
to  be  his  parents.  But  no  such  thing  did  Eleazer  Williams.  In  1851. 
when  his  mother  was  summoned  before  de  Lorimier  to  testify  as  to 
his  parentage  she  learned  for  the  first  thne,  and  not  from  her  son,  thai 
he  was  claiming  another  ancestry.  Strange  and  inexplicable  mystery 
of  reticence!  A  person  is  announced  to  be  Louis  XVII.,  the  uncrowned 
king  of  France  and  Navarre,  and  his  wife,  and  son,  those  whom  all 
men  believe  to  be  his  parents,  learn  of  the  announcement  a  decadr 
afterward  from  the  lips  of  strangers!  Eleazer  was  very  careful  that 
this  story  should  not  become  v/ide-spread  until  his  father  had  died 
or  become  too  decrepid  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  the  slanderers  of 
his  family.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  true  explanation  of  Eleazer's 
protracted  silence  concerning  this  alleged  disclosure  lies  in  the  survival 
of  his  father.  And  in  this  connection  I  cannot  but  condemn  those 
who  state  that  Thomas  Williams  never  claimed  Eleazer  to  be  any  more 
than  his  adopted  son. ^'^s  This  statement  is  grossly  unjust  to  that  ex- 
cellent soldier  and  good  man.  E)oubtless  Thomas  never  did  "claim" 
Eleazer  to  be  his  son;  most  fathers  do  not  "claim"  their  sons — the 
paternity  goes  without  claiming;  but  that  Thomas  ever  denied  the 
fatherhood  of  Eleazer — much  as  he  might  blush  to  admit  it — has  not  a 
mote  of  evidence  to  sustain  it. 

IV.  The  whole  story  of  the  disclosure  and  requested  abdication 
is  inherently  improbable.  It  is  improbable  that  Louis  Philippe  would 
entrust  such  a  mission  to  a  youth  of  twenty-two;  it  is  improbable  that 
if  Eleazer  was  the  dauphin,  and  was  shut  off  from  all  the  world  in 
the  Wisconsin  woods,  and  was  ignorant  of  his  magnificent  ancestry 
and  was  likely  never  to  learn  it — it  is  improbable,  I  say,  that  even 
Orleans  princes  would  deliberately  seek  him  out  and  reveal  to  him 
that  very  thing  which  would  make  their  thrones  imstable,  their 
crowned  heads  uneasy.  Were  there  not  pretenders  enough  sprinkled 
about  Europe  to  be  thorns  in  his  side,  that  Louis  Philippe  should 
deliberately  go  about  to  discover  the  real  heir  in  America,  to  be  a  still 
deeper  sting?  • 

V.  A  noticeable  circumstance  about  the  interview  between  the 
prince  and  Eleazer  was  the  extreme  astonishment  attributed  to  the  lat- 
ter at  the  disclosure — an  astonishment  so  absorbing  that  Eleazer  neg- 
lected to  demand  from  his  informant  the  customary  and.  necessary 
proofs  of  his  remarkable  assertions.  Any  person  supposing  himself  to  be 
simply  a  Caughnawaga  Indian  would  develop  astonishment  on  learning 
that  he  is  the  representative  of  the  longest  royal  line  in  Europe.  Eleazer 
himself  speaks  of  his  timidity  and  bashfulness  as  traits  of  one  "who 


278.    Historical  Magazine,  October,  1859,  323. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  183 

had  always  considered  himself  of  such  obscure  rank/'^^a  And  yet,  not- 
withstanding this  astonishment,  timidity  and  bashfulness,  it  is  a  fact 
that,  three  years  before  this  interview,  Eleazer  had  claimed  to  be  that 
very  person  concerning  his  idcnity  with  whom  he  is  now  filled  with 
so  much  surprise.  In  or  about  1838  Eleazer  entered  the  office  of 
George  H.  Haskins,  editor  of  The  Buffalo  Exj^rcss  and  confided  to  him 
under  the  seal  of  the  most  profound  scerecy  that  he,  Eleazer,  was  not 
what  he  appeared  to  be  but  was  in  reality  the  dauphin  of  France,  men- 
tioning his  early  idiocy,  his  sanative  fall  into  Lake  George  and  the 
miraculous  restoration  of  his  memory.^so  When  therefore  the  prince 
revealed  to  him  the  same  ancestry  Eleazer  ought  not  to  have  mani- 
fested or  even  experienced  any  astonishment,  but  should  have  received 
the  news  with  the  dignity  and  reserve  of  one  who  had  long  become 
accustomed  to  the  information.  Just  here  it  is  worth  while  to  notice 
that  after  this  whisper  to  Mr.  Haskins,  and  while  the  prince  and 
Eleazer  were  chatting  on  Captain  Shock's  vessel.  Eleazer  told  the 
prince  that  when  Montcalm  fell  at  Quebec  that  gallant  Frenchman  left 
his  sword  to  an  Iroquois  and  then  expired  in  that  Iroquois'  arms;  ■ 
that  he,  Eleazer,  was  a  relative  of  that  Iroquois,  and  that  his,  Eleazer's, 
mother  was  an  Indian  woman.^si  Thus  did  this  remarkable  personage 
change  his  ancestors  as  his  whim  suggested;  thus  did  he  establish 
himself  an  utterly  irresponsible  informant. 

VI.  Among  many  slips  of  detail  I  notice  one:  Eleazer  tells  us 
that  after  talking  far  into  the  night  with  the  prince  both  separated 
to  meet  the  next  day.  But  the  difficulty  with  this  is  that  the  prince  did 
not  tarry  over  night  in  Green  Bay.  The  prince  writing  twelve  years 
afterward  states  that  he  remained  there  but  half  a  day-^-,  and  Dr. 
Butler  of  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  prints  in  The  Na- 
tion that  de  Joinville  did  not  pass  the  night  in  Green  Bay.-s"'  To  the 
same  ef¥ect  is  the  testimony  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  S.  Martin  who  met 
the  prince  upon  this  occasion  at  Green  Bay  and  who  in  a  hearty  and 
genial  old  age  still  survives.  She  has  recorded  that  the  prince  did  not 
remain  over  six  hours  in  Green  Bay  and  that  a  large  portion  of  this 
time  was  spent  at  the  toilette  in  preparation  for  a  reception  and  dinner 
at  which  Eleazfer  Williams  and  Mrs.  Martin  among  others  were 
present.  Immediately  after  the  dinner  the  prince  started  on  his  eques- 
trian tour,  tarrying  for  the  night  at  the  house  of  John  McCarty,  four 
or  five  miles  beyond  DePere-^* — instead  of  spending  the  hours  at  the 

279.  Hanson's  The  rx)St  Prince,  362. 

280.  Robertson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon  Story,  Putnam's,   II.   n.   s.,  Of!;   Drap- 
er's  Additional   Notes,    Wis.    Hist.    Coll.,    VITI.,    362. 

281.  Hanson's  The  Ixist  Prinoo,  40.j.  404. 

282.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Priufo,  403. 

283.  Butler's  The  Story  of  Louis  XVII.,  in  Nation,  May  31,  1894,  417. 
2.84.    Martin's  Uncrowned  Hapsburg,  87,   and  Draper's  Note   in   Ms. 


184  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Astor  House  in  Green  Bay  begging  Eleazer  Williams  to  resign   the 
kingdom  of  France. 

VII.  But  what  said  the  other  party  to  this  interview?  Upon  the 
receipt  by  the  prince  de  Joinville  of  the  February,  1853,  number  of 
Putnam's  Magazine  containing  the  account  of  the  meeting,  the  dis- 
closure,and  the  request  for  abdication,  the  prince  through  his  secretary 
addressed,  from  his  exile  home  in  Claremont,  Surrey,  England,  a 
letter  dated  February  9,  1853,  to  the  London  agent  of  Mr.  Putnam.  In 
this  communication  he  admitted  the  meeting,  and  the  conversation 
with  Eleazer  and  subsequent  correspondence  between  the  two  on 
matters  relating  to  the  Indians,  but  as  to  the  main  story  the  prince 
stamped  it  in  every  particular  as  a  work  of  the  imagination,  a  fable 
woven  wholesale,  a  speculation  upon  public  credulity.^s^  Mr.  Hanson, 
who  could  not  well  exclude  this  letter  from  The  Lost  Prince,  made 
an  effort  to  blunt  its  point  and  counteract  its  force,  but  his  attempt 
was  feeble  and  unsatisfactory  and  this  denial  of  the  prince  so  compre- 
hensive and  so  emphatic  must  be  accepted  as  converting  Eleazer's 
story  into  the  wildest  fiction. 

VIII.  But  it  is  perhaps  not  astonishing  to  know  that  Eleazer 
Williams  did  not  believe  this  story  himself  and  so  stated  in  at  least 
two  instances.  After  the  appearance  of  The  Lost  Prince,  Eleazer  hap-- 
pened  to  meet  in  Baltimore  Charles  D.  Robinson  of  Green  Bay,  a 
friend,  and  the  editor  of  The  Green  Bay  Advocate.  Mr.  Robinson  who 
knew  Eleazer  and  his  character  well,  said  to  Eleazer,  referring  to 
this  book,  "I  don't  believe  there  is  a  word  of  truth  in  it."  Eleazer 
broke  into  a  hearty  laugh,  seeming  to  appreciate  the  point,  and  replied, 
"Nor  do  I,  either."  So,  meeting  his  longtime  friend  Alexander  Grig- 
non,  Eleazer  asked  him  if  he  had  heard  anything  about  the  dauphin 
matter.  "Yes,  I  have,"  was  the  reply,  with  a  laugh  and  manner  evinc- 
ing his  total  disbelief  of  the  story.  "It  is  not  me,"  continued  Eleazer 
with  a  disregard  of  grammar  that  would  have  made  the  young  dauphin 
blush,  "they  wanted  it  so,  and  I  don't  care."-**'  Perhaps  the  true  in- 
wardness of  this  wholesale  deception  would  be  disclosed  if  Eleazer 
had  stated  definitely  whom  he  meant  by  they.  But,  if  Eleazer  himself 
did  not  believe  this  tale,  the  rest  of  mankind — which  excludes  the 
writer  of  The  Story  of  Louis  XVIL— may  be  pardoned  for  sharing 
his  incredulity. 

IX.  Moreover,  belief  by  Eleazer  in  his  identity  with  the  dauphin 
would  have  been  totally  inconsistent  with  his  conduct  and  admissions 
subsequent  to  1841.  Four  years  after  the  prince's  visit,  that  is  to  say 
in  1845,  Eleazer  assisted  in  preparing  a  memoir  of  his  great-grand- 
mother,  Eunice  Williams;  in  1848  he  preached  historical  sermons  in 


285.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   404. 

286.  Draper's  Additional  Notes.  Wis.  Hist.  Coll.,  VHI.,  367. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  185 

Dcerfield  on  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  his  ancestor,  the  Rev. 
John  Williams-s":  in  1845  he  gave  his  pedigree  to  the  genealogist.  S. 
W.  WiUiams,  M.  D.,  stating  therein  that  Thomas  WilHams  was  his 
father,  also  writing,  "I  am  highly  pleased  to  learn  that  you  are  tracing 
out  the  genealogy  of  the  Williams  family  and  particularly  of  my  grand- 
father, Rev.  John  Williams";  in  October,  1846,  he  offered  to  lend  his 
portrait  of  his  "grandsire",  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  to  the  uses  of 
the  contemplated  genealogy;  in  September,  1847,  he  sent  to  the  gene- 
alogist Williams  a  portrait  of  his  "grandfather  Williams"  ;-88  on  Janu- 
ary 18,  1850,  in  furthering  the  claim  of  Mary  Ann  Williams  for  the 
services  of  her  husband  in  the  war  of  1812  Eleazer  Williams  swore 
upon  oath  as  follows:  "That  I  was  in  the  secret  of  the  United  States 
in  the  war  which  commenced  in  1812  and  that  I  had  the  charge  and 
commanded  the  secret  corps  of  observation  on  the  northern  frontier 
during  the  said  war;  and  that  it  was  through  me  that  my  father, 
Thomas  Williams,  an  Iroquois  chief,  was  especially  invited,  in  behalf 
of  the  general  government  ....  to  join  the  American  stand- 
ard,"-89 — all  these  admissions  of  conduct,  speect  and  oath  after  the 
prince  de  Joinville  had  solemnlj^  informed  Eleazer  that  he  was  not  a 
Williams  at  all  but  was  Louis  of  France,  the  seventeenth  of  that  name! 

X.  The  attitude  towards  each  other  of  both  prince  and  priest  sub- 
sequent to  the  interview  indicates  that  no  momentous  subject  was  dis- 
cussed at  Green  Bay.  Soon  after  the  prince's  departure  Eleazer  sent 
him  a  paper  relating  to  Charlevoix  and  La  Salle.  The  prince's  courteous 
acknowledgment  shows  no  evidence  of  any  secret  matter  between  them. 
Two  years  later,  in  the  name  of  fiis  Indian  brethren,  Eleazer  sent 
through  the  prince  to  Louis  Philippe  for  some  books.  The  books 
were  sent  with  a  letter  from  the  prince's  secretary  announcing  the 
king's  compliance.  A  delay  in  transit  brought  from  the  French  consul 
general  in  New  York  a  note  of  regret  that  he  "was  unable  before  to 
present  to  Mr.  Williams  the  enclosed  letter  and  the  box  of  books  sent 
by  the  king  of  the  French" — the  letter  being  the  one  from  the  prince's 
secretary.  The  matter  just  quoted  is  the  foundation  for  the  story  of 
Eleazer  receiving  an  autograph  letter  from  Louis  Philippe — a  story  of 
which  Eleazer  boasted.  When  asked  to  exhibit  this  autograph  letter 
it  was  lost.  The  reply  of  Eleazer  to  the  letter  from  the  prince  by  the 
latter's  secretary  is  certainly  not  penned  by  one  who  considered  himself 
placed  by  the  disclosures  made  at  Green  Bay  "in  the  position  of  a 
superior"  to  the  prince,  as  this  extract  will  show: 

So  well  pleased  am  I  with  the  books,  and  so  liisli  an  opinion  do  I  entertain  of 
your  Royal  Highness'  benevolence  and  friendship  as  to  mitxildeii  me  t)  appear  before 


287.  Kohertsou's  The   Last   of   tlio    Itnurlion    Story.   I'lilnain'.'s.    II.    u.    s.,   04. 

288.  Williams'  The  Kedecmed  Captive.   177. 

289.  Report,   .January   16,    lS."i7,    Hoiiso   Couimittee  <^in   Military   .\ffalrs,    on   claim 
if   .Mary   .\nn  Williams.   pMiio  ."),  .^4th  Congriess,  Tl;ird   S  sson.    No.   ,s;!. 


186  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

him  as  a  suppliant]  for  a  similar  favor.  For  years  I  have  beeu  desirous  to  acquaint 
myself  with  the  writings  of  the  French,  either  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  histories,  ;is 
well  as  in  theology.  If  it  is  not  asking  and  intruding  too  much  upon  your  Roy;il 
Highness'  goodness  may  I  hope  that  lie  will  give  a  favoral)le  hearing  to  my  humble 
request.290 

It  should  be  stated  parenthetically  that  whenever  Eleazer  was 
called  upon  to  produce  original  documents — letters,  medals  or  what 
not — these  were  always  missing,  burned,  stolen,  mislaid,  among  his 
papers  at  some  other  place.  He  boasted,  for  example,  of  several  mis- 
sives from  French  bishops  and  cardinals  and  one  from  the  secretary 
of  Napoleon  III.,  all  enquiring  about  his  history.  Like  the  atttograph 
letter  from  Louis  Philippe  they  had  all  disappeared.-''^ 

Eleazer's  journals  were  as  useful  to  his  purpose  as  his  mysteriously 
disappearing  documents.  These  journals  consisted  of  sheets  loosely 
stitched  together  so  that  the  insertion  of  leaves  containing  new  matter 
or  the  re-writing  of  old  matter  was  an  easy  task.  Indeed,  for  some 
periods  of  his  life  there  are  preserved  two  journals  dififering  in  details 
of  events-^- — one  or  the  other  or  both  evidently  prepared  after  the 
incidents  recorded  and  to  serve  some  purpose.  Eleazer  could  prodtice 
journals  as  he  did  scars. 

XL  A  curious  phenomenon  is  to  be  observed  about  the  expres- 
sions and  reflections  attributed  to  the  prince  dvtring  his  interview 
with  Eleazer — that  they  are  identical  in  sentiment,  that  they  are  often 
clothed  in  exactly  the  same  language,  with  ideas  and  opinions  contained 
in  the  journals  of  Eleazer,  of  dates  long  anterior  to  1841.  Especially 
is  this  true  as  to  the  remarks  concerning  the  aid  rendered  by  France 
to  America  during  our  revolution  and  concerning  the  connection  be- 
tween the  French  revolution  and  the  misfortunes  of  Louis  XVI.-^-' 
This  is  easily  explicable.  When  Eleazer  in  1848,  either  alone  or  witli 
the  aid  of  a  friend  was  stealthily  launching  his  imposture,  he  found 
in  his  own  early  meditations  satisfactory  material  for  the  made-up  con- 
versations of  the  prince  with  himself.  About  these  were  grouped 
the  other  incidents — the  prince's  expression  of  astonishment  at  see- 
ing the  Bourbon  lineaments  on  Eleazer's  face,  the  htmiility  which 
wotild  not  permit  the  priest  to  dine  at  the  same  table  with  the 
prince,  the  night  meeting  at  the  Astor  House,  the  revelation,  the 
bribe,  the  indignant  rejection,  the  over-night  reconsideration,  the  re- 
newal of  the  refusal,  the  final  parting — all  clustered  into  a  sensa- 
tional,   if  not   into  a  coherent,    narrative. 

XII.     It  need   not   elicit   surprise  that   Eleazer   Williams   as   long 


200.  Robertson's   The  Lust  of  the  Bourbon   Story,   Putnam's,    II.    n.    s.,   OH. 
291.  Robertson's  The  Last  of  the   Boiu-bon  Story.   Putnam's,   II,   n.   s.,   !>():   Han- 
son's The  Ixist  Prince,   355. 

202.  Robertson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon  Story,   Putnam's,   II,   n.   s..  00. 

293.  Rolifitson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon   Story,   Putnam's.   II.   n.   s.,  95. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  187 

ago  as  TS38,  had  declared  himself  the  dauphin.  He  enjoyed  the  privi- 
lege not  accorded  to  those  who  live  a  century  after  the  episode  in  the 
Temple,  of  existing  in  the  age  that  produced  dauphins.  Men  far  less 
acute  and  cunning  than  Eleazer  had  palmed  themselves  off  upon  the 
public  as  the  heir  of  St.  Louis,  had  been  the  objects  of  anxiety  and 
solicitude,  had  even  engaged  tlie  attention  of  the  daughter  of  Louis 
XVL  While  dauphin-meteors  had  been  shooting  athwart  the  Euro- 
pean firmament,  while  one  at  least  was  still  shining  with  tinsel  lustre, 
should  not  one  pretender  glitter  with  bright  effulgence  in  the  western 
horizon?     Should   not   Eleazer   Williams   be   that   pretender? 

After  the  visit  of  the  prince  to  Green  Bay.  but  little  in  the  life 
of  Eleazer  requires  notice  for  several  years.  He  was  almost  entirely 
disassociated  from  the  Indians  but  was  much  occupied  in  pressing 
against  the  government  claims  growing  out  of  their  removal  to  the 
western  country.  In  1846  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel among  the  Indians  and  others  in  North  America  appropriated 
money  for  his  support  as  a  missionary,  but  after  two  years  this  stipend 
was  withdrawn,  the  result  not  justifying  its  continuance.-'' '  In  1850 
he  went  east  to  profTer  his  services  for  the  removal  of  the  Seneca  In- 
dians from  Indian  Territory  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 
His  offer  was  declined.  Not  returning  to  his  family-*'"  he  took  up  his 
residence  at  St.  Regis,  where  he  commenced  a  school  and  where  he 
had  some  kind  of  missionary  appointment  from  the  Diocesan  Society 
of  New  York  and  from  the  Boston  Unitarian  Society.-'-"^  Upon  the 
recommendation  of  his  neighbors  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  renewed  its  appropriation,  but  in  1853  this  was  withdrawn, 
owing  to  his  protracted  absences  from  duty.-^'^ 

His  home  was  on  the  St.  Regis  reservation  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life,  although  he  frequentlj^  traveled.  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1851. 
while  on  a  journey,  that  Mr.  Hanson,  who  had  read  of  the  claim  for 
Eleazer  in  The  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer,  made  his  acquaint- 
ance.-^^ Through  Mr.  Hanson's  energetic  espousal  Eleazer  was  con- 
verted from  a  secret,  surreptitious  pretender  into  an  open  declarator 
of  his  royal  position.  Under  Mr.  Hanson's  tuition  he  became  a  genu- 
ine  monarch,   issued  manifestos,   signed   L.   C.   to   his   documents,   re- 

294.    Huntoou's    Eleazer    Williams,    259. 

29.5.  Before  leaving  Wisconsin  Eleazer  left  wiih  Mrs.  Daniel  Krown  of  Sheboygan 
a  painting  to  be  kept  by  ber  until  he  should  order  It  sent  to  liini.  He  c'aimed  it  was 
a  picture  of  Louis  XVI.  and  Mrs.  Brown  says  there  is  a  strong  likeness  between  the 
face  in  the  painting  and  that  of  Eleazer  Williams.  The  picture  is  now  owned  by  Mrs. 
Crown's  daughter,  Mrs.  I.  H.  Jones  of  Shebo.vgan.  Mrs.  Brown,  who  was  born  August 
22,  1809,  is  still  living.  Letter  from  Mrs.  Brown,  May  12,  1896:  Wiglit's  The  Old 
Wliite  Church,  9. 

290.    Kobertson's  The  Last  of  the  BourlK>n  Story.  98. 

297.  Huntoon's  Eleazer  Williams,  260. 

298.  Hanson's  The  I>ost   Prince.  836. 


188  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

ceived  notes  phrased  Your  Most  Gracious  Majesty-^^  and  promised 
his  friends  passage  to  France  in  a  national  ship  when  he  should  ob- 
tain his  own."*'*^ 

T  have  said  that  at  first  Eleazer  was  a  secret  pretender.  I  mean  that 
the  first  obtrusion  of  himself  as  a  dauphin  was  in  private  ways,  by  per- 
sonal interview,  by  anonymous  letter,  by  fictitious  signature.  In- 
stances uf  his  .'iiothod  h.'ae  1  cen  given.  Instances  fvrther  follow:  D- 
Vinton  writes  that  in  August,  1844,  while  he  and  Eleazer  were  in  the 
parlor  of  the  residence  of  Mrs.  O.  H.  Perry  at  Newport,  the  writer's 
attention  was  attraced  by  the  gesticulations  and  other  antics  of  Eleazer 
who  was  examining  a  volume  of  engravings  and  accidentally  came 
upon  a  print  of  Simon,  the  dauphin's  cruel  jailer  in  the  Temple.  Dr. 
Vinton  says,  "I  saw  Williams  sitting  upright  and  stiff  in  his  chair,  his 
eyes  fixed  and  wide  open,  his  hands  clenched  on  the  table,  his  whole 
frame  shaking  and  trembling  as  if  paralysis  had  seized  him.  .  .  Point- 
ing to  the  wood-cut  he  said,  'That  image  has  haunted  me  day  and  night, 
as  long  as  I  can  remember.  'Tis  the  horrid  vision  of  my  dreams;  what 
is  it?  Who  is  it?'  "  The  leaf  was  turned  and  Simon's  name  was  on  the 
reverse. ^•'i  From  this  incident  those  who  did  homage  to  Eleazer  drew 
sure  conclusions;  but  I  have  no  doubt  the  scene  was  a  very  clever  bit 
of  play  and  if  Dr.  Vinton  is  not  mistaken  in  the  year,  Eleazer  was  en- 
gaged longer  than  has  been  believed  in  working  up  his  imposture.  It 
should  be  added  that  Eleazer  is  credited  with  the  same  theatrical  piece 
of  acting  about  six  years  later  at  the  residence  of  Professor  Day  of 
Northampton — there  was  another  picture  of  Simon,  Eleazer  greatly 
excited,  and  the  ejaculation  "Good  God,  I  know  that  face,  it  has 
haunted  me  through  life."^o-  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  the  matter  could 
be  thoroughly  ferreted,  it  would  be  found  that  the  half-breeds  Skenon- 
dogh  and  Eleazer  arranged  the  story  and  provided  for  the  affidavit 
which  was  taken  so  formally  on  June  14,  1853,  in  which  Skenondogh 
is  made  to  swear  that  he  was  present  at  Ticonderoga  in  1795  when 
two  Frenchmen  delivered  an  imbecile  and  sickly  boy  to  Thomas  Wil- 
liams and  that  Eleazer  was  that  boy."''^  The  story  of  the  taking  of  the 
affidavit  and  of  the  actions  of  Eleazer — for  by  a  curious  coincidence  he 
happened  to  be  in  New  York  at  the  time — before  the  notary,  all  display 
the  artful  and  cunning  methods  of  an  artful  and  cunning  man."<>* 

Another  way  in  which  he  brought  himself  into  notice  by  the  under- 


2il!l.  l£obertson"s  The  Last   of  the  Bourbon   Stor.v,    I'lilnani's.    II,    n.   s.,   '.)\). 

:\W.  Letter,  April  6,   1896,   from  George   Sheldon  of  DeerfielJ,   Mass. 

.■?01.  Vinton's  Louis  XVII.  and  Eleazer  Williams,  Putnam's  II,  n.  s.  oiU. 

3C2.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  354;   Hanson's  Have  We  a  Bourbcin   Among-  Us? 

Putnam's,  I,  209;   Huntoon's  Eleazer  Williams,   283. 

303.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   177,  465. 

304.  Vinton's  Ix)uis  XVII.  and  Eleazor  Williams,  I'utiiam's,   11.   a.  a.  336. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  189 

ground  plan  is  exhibited  by  the  following  letter  written  under  a  false 
name  to  a  Mr.  Reed  of  Buffalo  in  August,  1850: 

It  so  happened  tbat  I  was  at  the  Eagle  Hotel  in  I'liilaiielpb':'  "heu  viu  and 
Mr.  W'illiams  (the  dauphin  of  France)  were  there.  Curii.sity,  as  well  as  having  taken 
an  interest  in  the  history  of  the  unfortunate  Prince,  has  led  me  tj  aldtcS.  yoi  an  I 
ask  you  to  have  the  goodness  to  inform  me  if  you  are  in  possession  of  any  historical 
facts  in  relation   to  this  wonderful  man. 

Aonther  instance  of  the  same  kind  a  little  earlier  in  time:  There 
appeared  in  the  United  States  Magazine  and  Democratic  Review  for 
July,  1849,  what  seemed  to  be  an  anonymous  review  of  a  book  entitled 
History  of  the  Dauphin,  Son  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth  of  France,  by 
H.  B.  Ely,  or  as  given  in  the  Table  of  Contents,  N.  B.  Ely.  The 
review  includes  quite  an  account  of  Eleazer  Williams  and  the  different 
proofs  of  his  royal  extraction  and  is  so  much  in  the  style  of  Eleazer 
that  Mr.  Robertson  was  fully  justified  in  suspecting  his  authorship. 
When  it  is  added  that  no  such  book  ever  existed  as  Mr.  Ely  purported 
to  review  and  that  no  such  man  as  H.  B.  Ely  or  N.  B.  Ely  ever  again 
arose  during  the  Williams  controversj^  although  sought  for  and  asked 
to  present  himself,  enough  has  been  said  to  expose  the  guileful  Indian 
hand  of  the  hero  of  this  paper."'^-* 

The  Bellanger  incident  was  a  fiction  of  Colonel  Henry  E.  East- 
man of  Green  Bay.  In  or  after  1847,  Colonel  Eastman,  a  lawyer  and  a 
prominent  citizen,  was  an  intimate  and  confidential  friend  of  Eleazer 
Williams.  Interested  in  French  history  and  in  the  decay  of  Bourbon 
power  Colonel  Eastman  wrote  a  romance  based  on  the  misfortunes 
of  young  Louis  and  made  Eleazer  Williams  the  chief  character.  The 
manuscripts  from  time  to  time  were  loaned  to  him  to  read  at  his 
leisure.  Unknown  to  the  author  the  parts  were  copied  and  returned. 
An  account  of  the  death  in  New  Orleans  of  the  faithful  adherent.  Bel- 
langer, who  had  brought  the  dauphin  to  America  and  placed  him  in 
the  charge  of  Thomas  Williams,  was  one  of  the  features  of  this  ro- 
mance, as  it  is  one  of  the  features  of  Mr.  Hanson's  romance. ^"6 
To  the  amazement  of  Colonel  Eastman,  his  story  with  the 
addition  of  some  affidavits  and  other  special  proofs,  not  necessary  to 
his  imaginary  tale,  appeared  in  Putnam's  Magazine.  Of  course  Elea- 
zer's  Journal  contained  the  matter,  of  course  it  was  exhibited  to  Mr. 
Hanson   and   is   quoted    from   at   length. ''-O'      The    information    of   the 

305.  Kobertson's  The  Last  of  the  Bourbon   Story,   rutuam's,   II.   n.  s,  98. 

306.  Smith's  Eleazer  Williams,  Wis.  Hist.  C!oll.  VI.  337.  Colonsl  Eastman  his 
been  mayor  of  Green  Bay  and  was  lieutenant-colonel  of  thL'  Second  Wiseondn  caralry 
from  November,  1861,  until  July,  18&1.  His  statements  as  1 1  this  romance  are  in  part 
confirmed  by  the  recollection  of  Senator  Timothy  <).  Howi-  of  Wise  nisin  and  in  great 
lueasure  liy  the  recollection   of  Colonel  James  II.    Howe  of  Chiiago. 

307.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,  378.  The  journal  is  dated  March  10,  1S48.  Mr. 
Uobertson  found  two  editions  of  the  journal  of  this  date,  exhiliiting  impotant  dffer- 
CQCes.     Kobertson's  The  I.ast  of  the  Bourbon  Story,   Ptitnam's,    II.   n.   s.   96. 


190  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

death  of  Bellanger  was  conveyed  to  Eleazer,  the  Journal  states,  by 
letter  from  Thomas  Kimball  of  Baton  Rouge,  Louisiana.  The  name 
of  Mr.  Kimball  does  not  appear  again  in  Eleazer's  Journal,  the  orig- 
inal Kimball  letter  was  never  produced  for  inspection  and  Mr.  Han- 
son, although  he  went  to  New  Orleans  and  secured  some  very  incon- 
sequential affidavits,  was  obliged  to  confess  that  he  could  find  no  trace 
of  Bellanger.-os 

In  1853  in  Februarj-,  Mr.  Hanson  published  in  the  second  number 
of  Putnam's  Magazine  the  sensational  paper.  Have  ]Vc  a  Bourbon 
Among  Us?  which  is  said  to  have  added  twenty  thousand  names  to 
the  subscription  list  of  that  magazine. =**'''  Immediately  upon  the  arrival 
of  the  article  in  England,  appeared  the  prince  de  Joinville's  emphatic 
denial  of  its  most  salient  feature,  and  Le  Ray  de  Chaumont's  correc- 
tion of  Hanson  so  far  as  the  latter  had  mentioned  his  father.  As 
soon  as  the  first  article  appeared  attention  was  directed  where  nat- 
urally Eleazer's  attention  ought  to  have  been  first  directed — to  his 
mother,  Mary  Ann  Williams.  Of  course  much  excitement  was  aroused 
and  of  course  much  agitation  would  find  its  way  to,  and  afifect,  the 
aged  mother.  On  March  28,  1853,  an  affidavit  in  English,  prepared 
by  Father  Marcoux,  was  presented  to  and  executed  by  her.  In  plain 
language  she  established  for  herself  the  doubtful  honor  of  being  Elea- 
zer Williams'  mother — thus  confirming  the  statement  which  she  had 
made  to  de  Lorimier  in  1851  and  confirming  the  oath  of  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams himself  in  January,  1S50.  As  this  affidavit  was  widely  published 
and  was  a  death  blow  to  Eleazer's  claims  there  was  need  to  counteract 
it.  This  was  attempted  by  means  of  an  affidavit  in  Iroquois  sworn  to 
by  Mary  Ann  Williams  on  July  8,  1853.  As  I  do  not  rest  my  judgment 
concerning  Eleazer's  claims  upon  either  of  these  affidavits  I  do  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  publish  them.^io  As  to  the  latter,  however,  I 
wisli  to  make  two  or  three  observations. 

I.  So  far  as  the  affiant  had  aught  to  do  with  it,  it  is  the  work  of 
a  person  considerably  over  ninety  years  of  age  who  was  so  distracted 
by  the  opponents  and  adherents  of  her  son  that  she  lost  what  little 
strength  of  intellect  a  monagenarian  might  have  otherwise  had.  This 
remark  applies  though  in  less  degree  to  the  affidavit  of  Maixh  28,  1853. 

II.  The  affidavit  of  July  8,  1853,  was  written  by  the  person  most 
interested  in  its  contents — Eleazer  Williams.  This  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  original  draft  of  the  document  in  his  handwriting  Avith 
erasures  and  interlineations  and  showing  how  gradually  it  was  built 
up,  was  found  among  his  papers  after  his  death,  and   by  the  further 


308.    Hanson's  Tlie   Lost   Prince.   430. 

.'{09.  Huntoon's  Eleazer  Wiliiam-,  rS'J.  Si'o  Kd  tir'..;  Easy  <'liar.  la  fj  r  .-. 
.Tunc,    1882,    14S. 

310.  They  are  printed  in  Hanson's  The  Lnst  I'rlnio.  432.  4.35,  and  in  Snidi  s 
Eleazer  Williams,   Wis.   Hist.   Coll.   VI.  .".IT.  321. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  191 

fact  that  the  document  contains  those  improvements  in  the  Iroquois 
language  which  Eleazer  had  many  years  before  invented. ^^^^  Eleazer 
must  therefore  stand  convicted  of  preparing  for  the  signature  and  oath 
of  his  feeble  and  distracted  mother  a  document  which  involved  what  he 
knew  was  a  falsehood,  a  document  "indicating  an  apparent  purpose 
to  steal  the  desired  avowal  of  his  adoption  from  his  mother  without 
making  too  broad  an  issue."  Notwithstanding  the  duress  of  her  son's 
presence  when  she  executed  the  instrument  she  evinced  surprise  that 
he  should  claim  to  be  any  other  than  her  own  son  and,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  justice  who  took  her  oath,  did  not  know  the  meaning  of  the 
word  adopted  which  Eleazer  had  inserted  after  his  name,  and  did  not 
intend  to  say  what  she  was  made  to  say.^^- 

III.  This  affidavit,  written  in  Iroquois,  was  translated  into  Eng- 
lish and  Mr.  Hanson  corrected  the  translation. "^^  What  shall  be  said 
of  this  affidavit  as  speaking  the  sentiment  of  Mary  Ann  Williams, 
when  we  reflect  that  it  was  signed  by  the  mark  of  a  woman  close  on 
to  one  hundred  years  of  age,  that  it  was  prepared  in  Iroquois  by  an 
unscrupulous  and  scheming  man  interested  in  upholding  a  petty  noto- 
riety and  that  its  translation  was  corrected  by  that  unscrupulous 
schemer's  most  ardent  and  indefatigable  lieutenant?  And  yet  not- 
withstanding this  Eleazer  did  not  dare  formulate  such  language  as 
would  make  his  mother  deliberately  deny  her  child,  but  by  indirec- 
tion, by  insertion  of  the  word  "adopted"  in  two  places  and  by  denial 
of  unimportant  details  he  concocted  a  document  which  has  not  helped 
his  case  in  any  particular  but  exposes  him,  and  I  fear,  Mr.  Hanson, 
to   great  odium. 

One  more  incident  in  Eleazer's  life  before  his  leaving  it:  Frequent 
mention  has  been  made  of  the  attempts  to  secure  from  the  government 
indemnity  for  the  losses  sustained  by  Thomas  Williams  in  the  war  of 
1812.  Not  until  the  death  of  Thomas  and  his  widow  was  the  proper 
reparation  made.  And  in  doing  this  justice  the  government  has  also 
done  justice  to  the  truth  of  histor3\  On  April  17,  1858,  the  House 
Committee  on  Military  Afifairs  reported  on  the  claim  of  "Eleazer  Wil- 
liams, heir  of  Thomas  Williams,'"  finding  the  latter's  distinguished 
and  unrecompensed  military  services  and  his  great  pecuniary  sacrifices. 
They  found  also  his  death  and  the  death  of  his  widow  and  then 
found  that  she  left  "as  her  sole  heir  and  devisee  her  son,  the  Rev. 
Eleazer  Williams,  who  is  likewise  the  sole  surviving  son  and  heir  of  the 
said  Thomas  Williams."  Representative  Pendleton  of  Ohio,  an  .u'uto 
and  sagacious  lawyer,  reported  these  findings  and  that  they  were 
"abundantly  proven  by  the  evidence."-'^'     And  so,  witliin  five  months 

311.  Ellis'   EleaziT   Williams.    Wis.    Hist.    ('<ill.    VIII.    350. 

.■512.  Robertson's  Tlie  Last  of  tiie  Bouibun  ."^laiy.  Pntiiain's,   II,   n.   s.  Hi'. 

.■'.l.S.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Prince,   4.'!4. 

.".U.  Ueport   No.   3(1.3,   35tli   Congro.s.   First    soslon. 


192  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

of  his  death,  Eleazer  Williams  was  "abundantly  proven,"  by  evidence 
preserved  in  the  archives  at  Washington,  the  son — not  of  Louis  XVI., 
the  heir — not  of  France,  but  the  son  and  heir  of  the  Caughnawaga 
Indians,  Thomas  and  Mary  Ann  Williams,  whose  paternity  for  twenty 
years  he  had  disowned  but  whose  heritage  he  did  not  hesitate  to  ac- 
cept. 

He  died  August  28,  iSsS,^!-*  in  great  poverty,  suffering  from  want 
of  attention  and  from  the  necessaries  of  life."^*^  He  had  dwelt  mostly 
alone  in  a  neat  cottage  erected  by  friends  subsequent  to  the  publications 
which  excited  so  general  an  interest  in  1853.  "His  habits  of  domstic 
economy  were  such  as  might  under  the  circumstances  be  alike  ex- 
pected in  one  reared  as  a  prince  or  a  savage;  and  his  household  pre- 
sented an  aspect  of  cheerless  desolation  without  a  mitigating  ray  of 
comfort  or  a  genial  spark  of  home  light.  His  neatly  finished  rooms 
had  neither  carpets,  curtains  nor  furniture  save  a  scanty  supply  of 
broken  chairs  and  invalid  tables;  boxes  filled  with  books,  the  gifts 
of  friends,  lay  stored  away  in  corners;  his  dining-table,  unmoved  from 
week  to  week  and  covered  with  the  broken  remains  of  former  repasts 
and  his  pantry  and  sleeping-room  disordered  and  filthy,  left  upon  the 
visitor  an  oppressive  feeling  of  homeless  solitude  that  it  was  impos- 
sible to  efiface  from  the  memory."3i7 

The  occupant  of  this  ill-kept  abode,  his  skin  turned  to  a  dark  red 
surely  betokening  his  Indian  descent,^!^  his  family  a  thousand  miles 
away  and  wilfully  deserted  by  himself,  his  hopes  and  ambitions  turned 
to  decay  and  ashes,  crept  scant  honored  into  a  lonely  grave.  His  son 
erected  a  monument  to  his  memory. 

It  must  have  been  observed  that  this  paper  has  considered  the 
dauphin  question  in  connection  with  Eleazer  Williams  entirely  from  the 
American  standpoint.  Granted  that  certain  actions  of  the  French  revo- 
lutionary government  in  1795,  granted  that  certain  actions  of  the 
restored  Bourbon  kings,  indicated  a  doubt  of  the  death  of  young  Louis 
in  the  Temple;  granted  that  the  frail  child  did  not,  as  a  matter  of 
history,  die  in  1795,  that  his  escape  was  accomplished,  that  he  received 
safe  asylum  in  Italy,  in  England,  in  America  even,  yet  still  Eleazer 
Williams  was  not  he.     Hervagault,   Persat,   Fontolive.   Mathurin-Bru- 


315.  Register  XIII,  95:  Evans'  Story  of  Ljuis  XVII,  90;  Smith's  Elcazor  Will- 
iams, M^is.  Hist.  Coll.  VI,  337;  Egeland's  Dauphin  in  Green  Bay,  Door  County  Advo- 
cate, December  22,  189-1;  Huntoon's  Eleazer  Williams,  268.  Mrs.  Williams'  Diary 
however  malies  the  date  four  days  earlier:  "August  24,  185S,  Mr.  Williams  died." 
As  she  was  not  with  him  at  his  death  and  the  entry  was  evidently  made  s.imewhat 
later  than  the  event  I  am  inclined  to  accept  the  date  in  the  text. 

316.  An  account  of  his  funeral  is  in  Huntoon's  Eleazer  Williams,  268. 

317.  Williams'   Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen,   Introduction,   page  13. 

318.  Letter,  May  2,  1896,  cf  Edward  H.  Williams,  Jr.:  Butler's  Tlie  Story  of 
Louis  XVII.,  The   Nation,   May  31,   1894,   417. 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  193 

neau,  Ojardais,  ]\Ieves,  Richemont,  Naundorfif,  any  one  of  the  brood 
of  Bourbonic  upstarts,  had  better  reason  to  be  identified  as  that 
escaped  scion  of  unhappy  majesty  than  the  half-breed  Iroquois  whose 
lines  have  fallen  unto  us  in  this  paper,  who  was  born  more  than 
three  years  later  than  Louis,  at  a  place  removed  three  thousand  miles 
from  the  rock  of  Louis'  cradle,  of  a  parentage  not  Capetian  and  Aus- 
trian, but  Mohawk  and  Massachusetts,  who  never  heard  the  eastern 
wash  of  the  Atlantic  waves  and  who  never  elbowed  royalty  save  on  Lake 
Michigan  and  at  Green  Bay. 

It  must  also  have  been  observed  that  this  paper,  although  brought 
into  late  being  as  a  consequence  of  The  Story  of  Louis  Xl'H.  of 
France  has  made  but  scant  mention  of  that  effort.  Purposely  so. 
Notwithstanding  the  author's  advertisement  that  her  volume  is  a 
"new  solution  of  a  historical  mystery",  notwithstanding  the  compli- 
ment of  Professor  Andrew  D.  White,  ex-minister  of  the  United  States 
to  Russia,  that  the  book  is  "beautiful  and  interesting"  and  "must  take 
the  leading  place  in  the  literature  of  the  subject"  and  that  "it  makes  out 
a  strong  case"^^^  one  cannot  avoid  wondering  whether  the  author  de- 
sires to  be  taken  seriously,  whether  she  does  not  intend  a  huge  gro- 
tesque. But  admitting  the  grave  purpose,320  this  must  be  said:  In  the 
pages  devoted  to  Eleazer  Williams  there  is  little  that  has  not  been 
condensed,  errors  and  all,  from  The  Lost  Prince;  the  book  abun- 
dantly deserves  the  characterization  of  The  Athenaeum,  "exceptionally 
tedious  and  ill-written  compilation"  ;32i  th^t  portion  relating  to  Eleazer 
Williams  overflows  with  statements  for  which  no  proof  is  ten- 
dered, overflows  with  statements  for  which  no  proof  can  be  ten- 
dered. Two  or  three  specimens  of  the  inaccuracies  must  be  pre- 
sented: Mrs.  Evans  states  that  Thomas  Williams'  mother  was  stolen 
by  the  Indians  from  Deerfield  in  1704^22 — Thomas  Williams'  mother 
was  not  born  until  after  1714.323.  Again,  it  is  related  that  certain 
French  travelers  visited  in  1794  in  Stockbridge  "Mr.  Williams,  a  man 
of  social  and  political  importance,  founder  of  Williams  College. "^-■' 
The  founder  of  Williams  College,  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams,  died  Sep- 
tember 8,  1755,3-^  nearly  forty  years  before  the  Frenchmen  visited 
Stockbridge.  Mrs.  Evans  may  be  excused  for  this  error,  for  she  bor- 
rowed it  from  Mr.  Hanson. ^26  Onte  more:  the  world  is  gravely  in- 
formed that  the  prince  de  Joinville  was  "the  eldest  son  of  King  Louis 


319.  Advertisement   in  The  Athenaeum,   Feb.  3,    1S94. 

320.  The  Atlantic  Monthly  (June  1S94,  S52)  seems  to  think   her  serinus. 

321.  The  Athenaeum  Xo.  3458,   February  3,   1894.   p.  142. 

322.  Page  15. 

323.  Thomas  Williams'  mother's  mother  was  but  eight  years  obi  in  1704.     Will- 
iams' Robert  Williams,  15. 

324.  Evans'   Story  of  Louis  XVII,   41,   42. 

325.  Everett's  Address,   Orations  and  Speeches.   11.  231. 

326.  Hanson's  Have  Wo  a  Bourbon  Among  Us?     Putnam's,   I,  211. 


194  ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 

Philippe,"  and  that  when  he  arrived  in  America  in  1841  "one  of  his 
first  enquiries  was  whether  a  man  named  Eleazer  Williams  was  living 
among  the  Indians  of  Northern  New  York."^-'^  These  two  clauses  rest 
on  equal  authority,  the  latter  on  Eleazer  Williams^-^  and  the  former 
on  nothing.  Surely  Mrs.  Evans  should  have  known  that  while  she  was 
writing  her  book  in  England  a  son  of  Louis  Philippe,  elder  than  de 
Joinville,  was  then  living  in  Europe.  The  due  de  Nemours,  the  sec- 
ond son  of  Louis  Philippe  died  aged  eighty-one  years  June  25,  1896.^29 
Let  us  read  together  IMacaulay's  criticism  of  Mr.  Croker:  "We 
do  not  suspect  him  of  intentionally  falsifying  history.  But  of  this  high 
literary  misdemeanor  we  do  without  hesitation  accuse  him — that  he 
has  no  adequate  sense  of  the  obligation  which  a  writer,  who  professes 
to  relate  facts,  owes  to  the  public.  We  accuse  him  of  a  negligence  and 
an  ignorance  analogous  to  that  crassa  negligentia  and  that  crassa 
ignorantia  on  which  the  law  animadverts  in  magistrates  and  surgeons 
even  when  malice  and  corruption  are  not  imputed.  We  accuse  him  of 
having  undertaken  a  work  which,  if  not  performed  with  strict  accuracy, 
must  be  very  much  worse  than  useless,  and  of  having  performed  it  as 
if  the  difference  between  an  accurate  and  an  inaccurate  statement  was 
not  worth  the  trouble  of  looking  into  the  most  common  book  of  refer- 


ence. 


"330 


It  is  difficult  accurately  to  characterize  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hanson  in  his 
capacity  as  the  defender  and  promoter  of  Eleazer  Williams  and  his 
claims.  As  the  grand  nephew  of  Oliver  Goldsmith^^i  jig  ^i^y  ^g  ex- 
cused if  he  was  credulous  and  simple-minded.  But  so  much  imposi- 
tion was  practiced  by  Eleazer  Williams,  so  many  marvelous  tales  he 
related,  so  many  documents  he  boasted  of  but  never  exhibited,  so  many 
discrepancies  are  palpable  in  his  journals,  so  many  statements  unsub- 
stantiated, that  I  wonder  the  uttermost  extreme  of  gullibility  did  not 
become  suspicious.  That  Mr.  Hanson  was  an  enthusiastic  and  loyal 
advocate;  that  he  wrote  A-igorous,  elegant  and  exciting  English;  that 
his  enthusiasm  became  contagious,  producing  adherents  who  are  still 
believers;  that  he  infected  other  reputable  ministers  whose  arguments 
and  evidence  were  superficially  powerful — all  these  things  are  admitted. 
Whether  Mr.  Hanson's  investigations  and  probings  left  him  still  in 
his  heart  a  believer  in  the  statements  set  out  in  The  Lost  Prince, 
whether  at  his   death""^   three  years  after  the   book   was   printed   he 

327.  Evans'  Story  of  Louis  XVII,  32. 

328.  Hanson's  Have  We  a  Bourbon  Among  Us?  Putnam's  I,  196;  Hanson's 
The  Lost  Prince,  339. 

329.  Review  of  Reviews,   August,   1890,   152. 

330.  ,See  Macaulay's  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays,  II,  IS,  (New  York,  1878) 

331.  Putnam's,    II.    n.    s.,    127,    for   July,    1868. 

332.  Mr.  Hanson  died  1857;  Mr.  Colton  died  March  13,  1857;  Dr.  Hawks  died 
September  26,  1866  and  Dr.  Vinton  died  September  29,  1872;  Rov.  Charles  F.  Rob- 
ertson, wlio  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Missouri  October  25,   1838.   died  May  1,   1886 


HIS  FORERUNNERS,  HIMSELF.  195 

looked  back  with  satisfaction  and  self-approval  upon  his  volume.  I 
have  no  means  of  knowing.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  in  his  writings 
on  the  subject  now  in  hand  Mr.  Hanson  was  often  intemperate  and  not 
always  fair.  Notice  in  his  attack  upon  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams,  the  fol- 
lowing, italics  and  quotation  marks  included  :■'•'" 

But  Dr.  Williams  contradicts  himself  in  a  manner  which  shows  how  little 
reliance  can  be  placed  on  any  of  his  recollections.  On  p.  174334  we  are  told  by  him 
Mr.  Williams  never  made  the  ' most  diataut  allusion"  to  "his  ever  having  had  an 
interview  with  the  Prince  de  Joinville;"  and  lo!  on  p.  177  we  read,  "  He  frfqiicnth 
told  me  and  my  family  that  this  risit  fro  ii  the  Prinnc  was  in  consequence  of  his 
rehitinnsbii)  to  his  wife,  and  that  he  received  his  presents  from  the  samp  cans  ■. 
His  stories  here  were  much  at  variance  with  those  iu  the  magazine."  I  wi  ndor  witli 
what  Dr.   W'illiams'   stories  are  at  variance. 

It  is  not  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  Hanson,  but  it  is  strict  justice  to  the 
memor}'  of  Dr.  S.  W.  Williams — a  most  exemplary  and  truthful  man^s" 
— to  write  that  the  former  has  deliberately  misquoted  the  latter.  On 
page  174  Dr.  Williams  is  recording  a  single  interview  with  Eleazer 
Williams — the  interview  in  1846  in  which  the  latter  gave  Dr.  Williams 
the  genealogical  particulars  quoted  in  this  paper — and  Dr.  Williams 
states  that  at  that  interview  Eleazer  gave  him  the  "notice  of  his  family, 
without  ever  making  the  most  distant  allusion  to  his  royal  descent  or 
to  his  ever  having  had  an  interview  with  de  Joinville."  This  is  not 
contradictory  of  page  177 — Dr.  Williams  was  to  careful  to  make  such 
an  error.    Mr.  Hanson  was  not  fair  to  accuse  him  of  it.^^^ 

This  is  but  one  instance — ex  uno  discc  oinnes.  I  am  constrained 
to  believe  that  in  his  loyalty  to  the  royal  pretensions  of  Eleazer  Wil- 
liams, in  his  pettish,  even  angry,  hostility  to  opposing  views,  in  his 
surendering  the  calm  historical  judicial  sense  to  the  acrimoniousnes? 
of  the  advocate, 33'  Mr.  Hanson  became  uncandid  and  disingenuous. 
From  that  criticism  his  method  cannot  escape;  while,  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  Eleazer  Williams,  his  character,  his  disposition,  his 
racial  propensities,  Tlic  Lost  Prince  with  its  formidable  array  of 
emptv  statements  can  be  pricked  and  proven  a  vain  bubble. 

WILLIA^I   WARD   WIGHT. 


333.  Hanson's  The  Lost  Priuce,  442. 

334.  Of  Dr.  Williams'  edition  of  The  Redeemed  Captive. 

335.  See  his  life  and  character  in  Huntington's  S.  W.   Williams,   II,  38!). 

336.  Mrs.  Evans  is  guilty  of  like  unfairness,  Story  of  Louis  XVII.,  So. 

337.  For  a  liUe  charge  against  Mr.  Hanson  sec  Simms'  Iroquois  Bourbon,  South- 
ern  Quarterly   Review,   July.   1853,   page  153 


APPENDIX    I. 


ALPHABETICAL,  LIST  OF   WORKS  CITED. 


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Lyman   O.    Draper.      In   Wisconsin  Historical  Collections,    II,    72. 

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Translated  by  W.  Hazlitt.     2  v.     London,  1853. 

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108.  Storrs,    Richard   S.,    Longmoadow.      Letter,    April    0,    1811. 

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113.  Van    Rensselaer,    Cortl.indt.      Historical     Discourse    of    the    Battle    of    Lake 

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114.  Vinton,    Francis.      Louis    XVII.    aud    Eleaztr    Willi. ims,    Were    They    Reall.v 

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1511.  June   14.    1894.   440. 


200 


ELEAZER  WILLIAMS. 


125.  Williams,    Edward    H.    jr.      Robert    Williams    cf    Roxbury,    Mass..    .in  I    lii:< 

Descendants.      Witb    addenda.      Newport,    R.    I.,     1891. 

126.  Williams,    Edward    II.    jr.,    Bellilebcni,    Ponnsylvnni.T.      liCtters    April    ti.    1.".. 

15,   20,   May  2,  8,   11,   15,  1896. 

127.  Williams,    Eleazer.      Life    of   Te-bo-ra-gwa-ne-gen,    Alias    Thomas    Williams. 

Witb  Introduction  and   Notes  by  Franlvlin  B.    Hnugli.      Albany,    1859. 

128.  Williams,     Eleazer.       Two    Homilies:       The     Salvation     of    Sinners    Through 

Riches  of  Divine  Grace.  Delivered  August  8,  1841,  in  tlio  Audience  of 
the  Oneida  Indians  at  Their  Eighth  Triennial  Anoiver-ary  Since  the 
Conversion  of  600  Pagans  of  That  Tribe  to  the  Christian  Faith.  With 
Appendix.      Green   Bay,    1842. 

129.  Williams,   John.     The   Redeemed   Captive  Returning  to   Zion.      Added    by   S. 

W.  Williams:  Biography  of  the  Author,  -Appendix  and  No  es.  North- 
ampton, 1853. 

130.  Williams,    Madelaine  H.      Manuscript  Diary. 

131.  Williams,    Steplieu   W.     The   Genealogy   and   History   of   the   Family  of   Wil- 
liams  in   America.     Greenfield,    1847. 

132.  Winsor,  Justui.     Cartier  to  Frontenac.     Boston  and  New   Yorlv,    1894. 

133.  Winsor,    Justin,    Editor.      Narrative   and   Ciitical   History   of   Nortli    Anierici. 

Vols.  IV.,   v.,   Boston  and  New  York,   n.   d. 

134.  World,   The.      New   York.     September   19,    1867. 

135.  Harper's  New  Monthly  Magazine,  Jine  1882,  i  age  148. 

136.  Seneca  Nation  of  Indians  v.   Christy,   49  Hiin  524:   12;  N.   Y.   122;    162   U.   S. 

283. 

137.  Tucker,  The  Rev.   W.  J.,  D.  D.,  Ham.ver,   N.  H.     Letter,   August  2.j,   18;>6. 


APPENDIX  II. 

Children  of  the  Rev.  John  and  Eunice  (Mather)   Williams. 


Name. 

Date  of  Birth 

Date  of  Death     r                       Remarks 

Eleazer 

July  16,  1688 

September  21,  1742 

Minister  at  Mansfield,   Conn. 

Samuel 

January  24,  1690 

June  30,  1713 

Town  clerk  of  Deerfleld 

Esther 

Stephen 

Eljakim 

April  10,  1691 
May  14,  1693 
May  1,  1695 

March  12,  1751 
June  10,  1782 
April  15.  1696 

Wife  of  Rev.  Joseph  Meacham 
Mini.ster  at  Longmeadow  66  years 

Eunice 
John 

September  17,  1696 
January  19,  1G98 

1786 
February  29,  1704 

CaiJtive  at  Caugbnawaga 
Killed  at  the  massacre 

Warham 

September  16,  1699 

June  22,  1751 

Minister  at  Waltham 

Jemima 
Jerusha 

September  3,  1701 
September  3,  1701 

September  11,  1701 
September  16,  1701 

Jerusha 

January  15,  1704 

February  29,  1704 

Killed  at  the  massacre 

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APPENDIX   IV. 


THE    BELL    OK    ST.    REGIS. 

by 

Lydia  Hiintlry  Slyouniey. 


The   red    men   came    in    their   pride    and    wrath, 

Deep   vengeance   flred    their   eye, 
And    the    blood    of    the    white    was    in    their    path. 

And    the   flame    fiom    his   ruof    rose   high. 

Then    down    from    the    burning    church    they    tore 

The   bell   of   tuneful   sound, 
And    on    with    their    captive    train    they    bore 
That   wonderful    thing   to    their   natlv"   shor.s 

The  rude  Canadiiin  bound. 

But   now   and    theu,    with   a    fearful    tone, 

It   struck   on    their  startled    ear,— 
And  sad  it  was,  mid  the  monnfciins  loue. 
Or    the    ruined    tempest's    muttered    moiin, 

That    terrilile    voice    to    hear. 

It   seemed   lilse   the   question   that   stirs    the   soul 

Of   Its   secret   good    or    ill. 
And    they    qualied    as    its    stern    and   solemn    toll 

Re-echoed    from    rock    to    hill. 

And    they    started    up    in    tlieir    brokeo    dream. 

Mid  the  lonely  forest  sliade. 
And    thought    that    they    heard    tlie    dying    scream, 
And    saw    the    blood   of   slaughter   stream 

Afresh    through    the    village    gl.sde. 

Then    they   sat    in   council,    those    chieftains    old. 

And    a    mighty    pit    was    made. 
Where   the   lake   with   its  silver   waters    rolled 
They    buried   that    bell    'ueath    the   verdant    m mid, 

And    crossed    themselves    and    prayed. 

And   there    till    a   stately    pow-wow    eame 

It   slept   in   its   tomb   forgot; 
With    a    mantle   of   fur,    and    a    brow    of   flame, 

He    stood    on    that    burial    spot : 


ELEAZER   WILLIAMS.  'iOH 

They    wheeled    the   (lanoe    with    its   mystic    round 

At    the   stormy    midnight    hour, 
-Vnd    a   dead   iiiiin's   hand   on    liis    hreast   lio    bound, 
And    invoked,    ero   lie    broke    thiit  awful    jrnnind, 

The    dcniuns    of   pride    and    powiT. 

Tlioii    lie    raised    the    bell,    witlj    a    nameless    rite. 

Which    none   but    himself   might    tell, 
In    blanket   and    buar-skin   ho    bound    it   tij-'iit, 
And   it  journeyed   in   silence   both   day    and    iii«lit, 

So  strong  was   that   magic   spell. 

It   spake   no  more,    till   St.    Regis'    tower 

In    northern    skies    appeared. 
And    their    legends    extol    that    pow-wow's    power 
Which    lulled    that    knell   like    the   poppy    fluwer, 
As  conscience  now  slumbereth  a  little  hour 

In  the  cell  of  a  heart  that's  seared. 


PARKMAN  CLUB  PUBLICATIONS. 


No.  1.  Nicholas  Perrot;  a  Study  in  Wisconsin  History.  By  Gardner  P. 
Stickney,  Milwaukee?,  1895.    16  pp..  paper;  8vo. 

No.  2.  Exploration  of  Lake  Superior;  the  Voyages  of  Kadisson  and  Groseil- 
liers.  By  Henry  C.  Campbell,  Milwaukee,  1896.  22  pp.,  paper ;  8vo. 

No.  3.  Chevalier  Henry  de  Tonty ;  His  Exploits  in  the  Valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi.   By  Henry  E.  Legler,  Milwaukee,  1896.  22  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

No.  i.  The  Aborigines  of  the  Northwest;  a  Glance  into  the  Eemote  Past. 
By  Frank  T.  Terry.    Milwaukee,  1896.    14  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

No.  5.  Jonathan  Carver ;  His  Travels  in  the  Northwest  in  1766-8.  By  .John 
G.  Gregory.    Milwaukee,  1896.  28  pp.,  1  plate,  Imap,  paper;  8vo. 

No.  6.  Negro  Slavery  in  Wisconsin.  By  John  N.  Davidson.  Milwaukee, 
1896.    28  pp.,  paper;  8 vo. 

IN    PRESS. 

No.  8.    Charles    Langlade,    Wisconsin's  First  Settler.    By  Montgomery  E. 

Mcintosh. 
No.  9.    The  German  Voter  in  Wisconsin  Politics.    By  Ernest  Bruncken.    This 

paper  wilV  cover  the  period  preceding  the  organization  of  tbo 

Republican  party. 

IM    F-REEF"  A  RATION. 

Bostwick,  M.  M.— Ancient  Copper  Miners  of  Lake  Superior. 

Bruncken,  Ernest— The  German  Voter  in  Wisconsin  Politics.  This  paper 
will  include  the  period  of  the  civil  war. 

Campbell,  Henry  Colin— Men.'^.rd,  the  Jesuit,     Migrations  of  theHurons. 

Davidson,  Rev.  John  Nel?  n  — Beginnitgs  of  Higher  Education  in 
Wisconsin. 

Gregory,  John  G.— Suffrage  in  Wisconsin. 

Kelly,  Frederick  W.— Local  Government  in  Wisconsin. 

La  Boule,  Eev.  Joseph  S. — Allonez,  the  Father  of  Wisconsin  Missions. 

Legler,  Henry  E. —  Mormons  in  Wisconsin. 

Mcintosh,  Montgomery  E.— Co-operative  Communities  in  Wisconsin. 

Miller,  Frank  H. —  Polanders  in  Wisconsin. 

Starkey,  Dan  B.— Wisconsin  and  tho  Revolutionary  Epoch. 

Stickney,  Gardner  P.— Certain  Vegetable  Food  Products  of  V»'isconsin 
and  Their  Bearing  upon  Indian  Life. 

Terry,  Frank  T. —  Wisconsin  Aborigines. 

Wight,  William  Ward— Joshua  Glover,  the  Fugitive  Slave. 


Publication  Committee. 
John  G.  Gregory.  


"iienry  Colin  Campbell,  Henry  E.  Legler  and 


The  Parkman  Club  was  f)rganized  Dec.  10th,  1895,  for  study  of  the  history 
of  the  Northwest.  Its  publications  are  printed  for  private  distribution  by 
the  members  of  the  club.  A  limited  number  of  copies  of  each  paper  is  set 
aside  for  sale  and  exchange.  Single  copies  are  sold  at  the  uniform  price  of 
25  cents,  and  the  annual  subscription  (10  numbers)  is  placed  at  $1.50. 
Correspondence  may  be  addressed, 

Gabdnee  p.  Sticknet,  Secretary, 

427  Bradford  Street,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 


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